There’s a lot of upcoming book adaptations I’m looking forward to, but one I just know I’ll watch the moment it’s available with my Netflix subscription is the movie for The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. But, I'm also not-so-secretly hoping there’s still time for the powers to be to see my plea for them to rethink one element of the adaptation before it officially goes into production.
I’ll never forget my experience reading the Taylor Reid Jenkins novel after being recommended to pick it up from friends from practically every corner. Once I opened it up, I found the premise of a practically unknown reporter named Monique Grant unexpectedly getting the exclusive of a lifetime when a Hollywood icon known as Evelyn Hugo decides to discuss her life story with her. When I read it, I had no idea it was going to be a movie, but I could already picture one thing in my head: how perfect would it be as a TV show.
The novel has been in Netflix’s hands since 2022, and a new director, Maggie Betts, just signed on to helm in February, per Variety, after Leslye Headland left the adaptation. Since we still don't have information on casting or a release date, I'm crossing my fingers there's still time to rethink it as a series rather than a movie.
I've Been Excited For Its Adaptation, But I'd Rather See A TV Series
Look, I’ll watch The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo adaptation no matter what, but I can’t believe the current plans are to make it into a movie rather than a series, when the concept feels literally meant to be episodic to me. The book itself is broken down into seven parts, and with each part there’s a thrilling quality to Monique learning more about Evelyn and getting to the bottom of her story that would lend itself so well to a series. I can just see myself bingeing a serial version of Evelyn Hugo, and being right there with Monique as each sitdown with the Hollywood legend has her deeper and deeper into her fascinating life and marital history.
While I think there’s been some great movie versions of books I love, I do really like this recent trend of more and more of them becoming TV shows instead, because it allows for the source material to really get the attention it deserves. In the rare instance of Evelyn Hugo, it practically writes itself for each episode to be named after one of Hugo’s husbands and then delve into why the actress decided to marry each one and then why they ultimately didn’t work out.
There's More Than Enough Material For A Series
Evelyn Hugo itself is just under 400 pages, and spans about eighty years in total regarding the amount of time that the actress recounts throughout the novel. If it becomes a movie rather than a TV series, I just know a ton of the details that went into the book will have to be cut, and if anything, I think there could be more information and scenes added to capture her life even further. Plus, when I read the book I thought about how with each episode and husband a different visual style could be employed to showcase a different era of Evelyn Hugo’s life.
During the plot of Evelyn Hugo, the actress is involved in a series of fictional productions for Little Women or a movie called One More Day, and as a viewer I think it would be so much fun to see Evelyn on the set of those productions. I think the series could definitely do a better job of recreating Evelyn’s career as the book tells it, and really making it feel like she is a real figure of old Hollywood, while also acting as the tribute and an examination to that time in the movie industry as well.
And, I Think It Would Allow For Evelyn Hugo's Emotional Ending To Hit Harder
Without giving too much away for those who’ve yet to read the book, Evelyn Hugo discusses a lot of important topics within its pages that deserve to get their own love and care. It gets into how Evelyn Hugo being a Hollywood star starting in the 1950s would have really been like for her, between dealing with domestic abuse, being objectified and heavily sexualized in the media, along with people manipulating her and constantly gossiping about her throughout her life.
It’s also currently among the new LGBTQ+ movies on the way with multiple queer characters within the storyline. While I’m all for that, historically telling complex stories about queer characters like the ones in this novel usually fare better in a TV show. The ending definitely hit hard for me, in terms that I was crying and just heartbroken but also feeling so tender about the story at the same time, and spending more time with the characters and developing them in a way only a TV show could will allow for the same reaction to hit audiences, too.
May I Point Out What Happened Last Time A Taylor Reid Jenkins Novel Became A TV Show?
Then there’s the fact that Taylor Jenkins Reid’s other bestselling novel with quite a bit of storytelling similarities, Daisy Jones & The Six, was turned into a TV show by Amazon and Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, and as a fan of the book, I was absolutely floored at how good of an adaptation it was. Turning it into a series allowed Daisy Jones’ full story to be told in a way that really hit all the main points of the book, and seeing all the original songs be performed at length across the show, was a real treat.
I could really see this working for Evelyn Hugo in regards to the different touch points of her life in a way a movie just wouldn’t have time for! And for example, another Reid book called One True Loves was made into a movie, and we found a lot of differences from the source material, mainly in regards to a lot of great scenes being cut. Anyway, I really hope that the Evelyn Hugo does end up being a series, but for now I’ll be waiting for updates about what’s going on with it.
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