Last month, it was announced that Anne Hathaway (The Devil Wears Prada) had signed on to play the title character in an adaptation of It Ends with Us author Colleen Hoover’s thriller novel Verity. Now, Deadline reports that she’s being joined in the cast by Dakota Johnson (Fifty Shades of Grey) and Josh Hartnett (Trap).

Hathaway’s character is Verity Crawford, a famous author who is unable to finish her latest thriller novel after a car accident leaves her badly injured and incapacitated. So her husband Jeremy offers a struggling writer named Lowen a huge sum of money to complete the remaining books in the series. Lowen accepts the gig but uncovers dark secrets in the process — including an unfinished manuscript that hints at chilling admissions about Verity and her family’s past — leaving Lowen to determine if Verity is a gifted fictionist or deranged psychopath. Johnson will be playing struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh, with Hartnett as Verity’s husband, Jeremy Crawford.

The Verity novel has a great opening line: “I hear the crack of his skull before the spattering of blood reaches me.” When I read the book last year, I was shocked that it hadn’t been given some kind of screen adaptation yet, because the story seemed like it was crying out to be turned into a movie or limited series. It was also one of the horniest books I’ve ever paged through, as there’s so much sex to read about in Verity’s memoir / manuscript, even Lowen gets tired of it. It will be interesting to see how the screenplay adaptation has been handled so we don’t just get scene after scene of Johnson reading about Hathaway and Hartnett having sex.

The Verity adaptation is coming our way from Amazon MGM and director Michael Showalter, who previously worked with Hathaway on The Idea of You, another adaptation of a popular book that was packed with sex. Nick Antosca, whose credits include Hannibal, The Forest, Channel Zero, Brand New Cherry Flavor, Antlers, Candy, and A Friend of the Family, has written the latest version of the script. Older drafts of the screenplay were written by Hillary Seitz, Angela LaManna, and the duo of Will Honley and April Maguire.

Hathaway, Hoover, and Showalter are producing the movie through their companies Somewhere Pictures, Heartbones Entertainment, and Semi-Formal Productions. Antosca is producing for Eat the Cat, while Jordana Mollick of Semi-Formal and Stacey Sher of Shiny Penny are also producing. Lauren Levine of Heartbones will serve as executive producer. Verity is part of Semi-Formal’s first-look film deal with Amazon MGM.

Verity is described as being a “gothic, psychosexual thriller in the vein of Rebecca and Gone Girl.”

What do you think of Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett joining Anne Hathaway in Verity? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The post Verity: Dakota Johnson, Josh Hartnett join Anne Hathaway in adaptation of Colleen Hoover thriller novel appeared first on JoBlo.