Blake Lively To Star In Adaptation Of ‘It Ends With Us’ At Sony – Deadline 

 EXCLUSIVE: Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are attached to star in the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel, It Ends With Us, which is currently in development with Wayfarer Studios and Sony Pictures. Baldoni will also set to direct with Christy Hall adapting the script. Alex Saks will produce for Saks Picture Company, along with Jamey Heath who will produce on behalf of Wayfarer Studios with Lively and Hoover exec producing along with Steve Sarowitz, Andrew Calof and Baldoni on behalf of Wayfarer Studios, which is also co-financing. Hall is also producing. 

After becoming a “BookTok” cultural phenomenon with over 2 billion views on her TikTok hashtag, Colleen Hoover is currently the best-selling novelist in the US with over 20 million books sold and wrote five of the top 10 best-selling print books of any genre in 2022. Published in 43 foreign languages, It Ends With Us was the top selling  print book of 2022, has been on the New York Times Best Seller List for over 90 weeks.

The novel was optioned in 2019 by Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, who have been working closely with the Hoover, who is consulting on the film.

·         Lively is coming off her directorial debut for Taylor Swift’s I Bet You Think About Me music video in 2021, which earned her two ACM Award nominations and a CMA nomination. She is set to reprise her role in the upcoming A Simple Favor sequel with Anna Kendrick, and Paul Feig retuning to direct. She will make her feature directorial debut for Searchlight with the adaptation of the Bryan Lee O’Malley graphic novel, Seconds, written and produced by Edgar Wright, alongside Marc Platt.

Baldoni is well-known for his starring role as “Rafael” on the CW’s Jane the Virgin, but since that time has moved more behind the camera with such films as Cloudsand Five Feet Apartamong his directing and producing credits.  He hosts a popular, Webby-nominated podcast, The Man Enough Podcast, which investigates the nuances of masculinity on a weekly basis.  Most recently he’s added author to his credits having penned his inaugural book Man Enough: Undefining MyMasculinity in 2021 and most recently Boys Will Be Human which is a New York Times bestseller.  

Hall co-developed and executive produced the Netflix/21 Laps 2020 series I Am Not Ok With This, an adaptation of Charles Foreman’s acclaimed graphic novel. She recently made her directorial debut with Daddio, which she adapted from her play of the same name. Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn star in the movie, which is currently in post. Hall also wrote the English language remake of Joachim Trier’s film Thelma, for FilmNation and Craig Gillespie, and also adapted Hold Back The Stars for Dan Cohen at 21 Laps and Lionsgate and Stephen King’s The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon for Vertigo and Village Roadshow. She is also writing the screenplay for The Husband’s Secret, based on Liane Moriarty multi-million copy #1 New York Times best-seller and which is in development at Sony Pictures, In TV, Hall recently served as consulting producer on Apple’s Servant.

Lively is represented by Entertainment 360 and Sloane, Offer, Weber and Dern. Hall is repped by CAA, Grandview, and attorney Miles Metcoff at Yorn Levine. Baldoni is repped by WME.