As the first hire for the film adaption, screenwriter-producer knew she had a long road ahead of her. After she was asked to pen the script by , who developed the movie via his Wayfarer Studios shingle, and , whose 2016 best-seller inspired the adaptation, Hall jumped right into immersing herself in the book and its beloved story. “I like to do that first, just fall in love with every word, fall in love with every moment, fall in love with every line,” she tells .
And that’s kind of my marinating piece of it.” From there, she started creating the screenplay, aiming to stick to the “core story as much as possible,” while also being “extremely strategic and systematic” about what stays in from the book and what doesn’t. In addition, she wanted to make Hoover proud as well.
follows Lily ( ) who overcomes a traumatic childhood and embarks on a new life. But after getting romantically involved with neurosurgeon Ryle (Baldoni), she sees sides of him that remind her of her parents’ abusive relationship. And when someone from her past, Atlas (Brandon Sklenar), reenters her life, it complicates things even more and Lily must learn to rely on her own strength to move forward.
Now, years later and with the , Hall hopes the adaptation “destigmatizes” domestic violence and “sparks a lot of conversation” around the subject. “I just think it’s art’s job to ignite conversations that can be uncomfortable and hard. But it’s kind of its job to shed light on t.