Colleen Hoover’s book Verity is being made into a movie — and it’s going to be a killer.
While the saga around the author’s last film adaptation, It Ends With Us, continues to play out in lawsuits between actress Blake Lively and director Justin Baldoni, production on the psychological thriller Verity is underway in New York City with a star-studded cast.
On March 12, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett, who play Lowen and Jeremy, respectively, were filming outside New York City’s Grand Central Terminal. Photos showed Johnson covered with fake blood, which ran down her face onto her long overcoat and was smeared on her headphones.
Johnson gets sprayed with fake blood on the set of Verity. (Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images via Getty Images)
The spatter was the result of a fatal pedestrian accident, which is the opening scene of Hoover’s 2018 novel. The scene on set showed a cyclist on the hood of a car, Lowen being hit with the victim’s blood and Jeremy sweeping in to help her.
Hartnett and Johnson shooting the opening scene of Hoover’s book. (Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images via Getty Images)
Anne Hathaway plays the title character — a famed thriller author who becomes incapacitated under suspicious circumstances — and was photographed shooting in Queens, N.Y., on March 10. The Oscar winner was wearing pink sweatpants and sneakers with a black blazer and sunglasses.
Verity is being directed by Michael Showalter, who also helmed The Idea of You, released in 2024, starring Hathaway. The film — from Amazon MGM Studios — follows the box office success of It Ends With Us, which came out in August.
Here’s what else we know about it.
What’s the film about?
Based on Hoover’s New York Times bestseller, the dark psychosexual thriller tells the story of Lowen Ashleigh, a struggling writer who has a dream job fall into her lap. Jeremy Crawford, husband of thriller author Verity Crawford, hires Lowen to complete books that his wife couldn’t after she was injured in a mysterious accident, according to Deadline.
Lowen goes to the couple’s estate and finds Verity’s unfinished autobiography manuscript — and it chillingly details the deaths of her twin daughters and other disturbing things. Lowen and Jeremy begin a relationship — while Verity is still alive. It’s hard to know who, if any of them, you can trust.
Who’s making the film?
Johnson, Hartnett and Hathaway make for a pretty impressive lead cast. Ismael Cruz Cordóva, Brady Wagner, Irina Dvorovenko, K.K. Moggie and Michael Abbott Jr. were recently added.
In February, Hartnett and Hathaway shot a scene on the streets of New York in happier times for their characters. They were decked out in formal attire and held hands.
Hathaway and Johnson are also producing the film along with Hoover and Showalter. The current script is written by Nick Antosca, according to Deadline.
What has Hoover said about the film?
The author self-published Verity in 2018, and it became such a massive success that it was acquired by Grand Central Publishing in 2021. That year, she wrote on GoodReads that out of all her books, she “had the most fun writing” Verity.
Hoover at the It Ends With Us premiere on Aug. 6, 2024. (John Nacion/Variety via Getty Images)
In August, Hoover said on Watch What Happens Live that she had just read the script and they were in the midst of casting. She had been sent a list of names but didn’t divulge any of them. Brandon Sklenar, who starred in It Ends With Us, was on the show with her, and she said he would make a great Jeremy but couldn’t put him in all of her films.
When the casting of the three main characters was announced in December, Hoover wrote on Instagram, “Excited is an understatement.”
Verity, self-published by Hoover in 2018, became a bestseller. (Grand Central Publishing)
Which other Hoover books are being adapted to film?
Regretting You and Reminders of Him have been optioned for film adaptations.
Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios bought the rights to It Starts With Us when it acquired It Ends With Us. The sequel is in an indefinite holding pattern due to the fallout between Lively and the studio.
In 2022, Hoover wrote on Goodreads: “I did sell the film rights to Verity a while back, but that doesn’t mean it will come to fruition. I’ve sold a lot of film rights that eventually reverted back to me if the producers couldn’t get the project off the ground. I’m hoping this one works out, though! I think it would be fun to see Verity as a movie.”
As for how she comes up with uncommon character names — Verity, Lowen, Atlas and Ryle — in her books, Hoover has said she “steals names from readers” when she does book signings.
“I always try to use unique names so when readers talk about the characters on social media, they aren’t being confused with other characters from other books,” she told Goodreads. “I think it’s important for authors to have names that stand out.”
Hoover said she also gets her names from street signs and baby name websites.
What’s going on with the ‘It Ends With Us’ lawsuits?
Lively alleged in a complaint in December that she was subjected to sexual harassment by Baldoni on the set of It Ends With Us and was retaliated against when she spoke up. Baldoni denied the allegations and sued the New York Times for defamation over its story about an alleged smear campaign against Lively.
Lively sued Baldoni in December and he countersued in early January. A trial is set for 2026, and there have been a lot of allegations back and forth, which we are tracking in our live blog.
