Anna Kendrick knows expectations are enormous for Netflix’s adaptation of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, but she sounds more excited than intimidated about taking it on.
Speaking at the Zurich Film Festival, where she was attending the European premiere of Lauren Miller Rogen’s Babies, Kendrick briefly addressed her next project behind the camera.
“Obviously, over the moon and so excited,” Kendrick said when asked about directing the long-awaited Taylor Jenkins Reid adaptation.
Netflix officially confirmed Kendrick as director in June, making Evelyn Hugo her second feature behind the camera after 2023’s Woman of the Hour.
Evelyn Hugo still has no announced cast
Netflix first announced its adaptation of Reid’s bestselling 2017 novel in 2022.
The story follows reclusive Hollywood legend Evelyn Hugo, who chooses an unknown journalist, Monique Grant, to hear the truth about her rise through Hollywood, her seven marriages and the secrets hidden behind her carefully constructed public image.
Kendrick will direct a screenplay originally written by Liz Tigelaar, with Francesca Sloane currently handling revisions. Reid is attached as an executive producer, while Liza Chasin, Brad Mendelsohn and David Hinojosa are producing.
The biggest unanswered question remains the cast.
Netflix has not announced who will play Evelyn, Monique or any of the seven husbands, despite years of fan-casting around the project. The streamer also has not revealed a production start or release date.
That makes Kendrick’s latest comments more of an enthusiasm update than a sign that cameras are about to roll immediately.
Brittany Snow helped Kendrick through her first directing panic
Kendrick also used the Zurich conversation to explain how her Pitch Perfect friendships helped her when she first moved into directing.
Before making Woman of the Hour, Kendrick said she was “really in a panic” about stepping onto a set as director. One of the people she turned to was longtime Pitch Perfect co-star Brittany Snow, who had recently made her own directing debut with Parachute.
Snow’s advice was refreshingly simple: Kendrick would get onto the set, understand what needed to be done and should stop worrying about it. Kendrick said that blunt reassurance was exactly what she needed.
That friendship has lasted far beyond the three Pitch Perfect films.
Kendrick said the group—including Snow, Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp and Hailee Steinfeld—became “10 girls who are family, in the truest sense.” When someone in their group chat is going through something difficult, the others immediately start figuring out who can show up and help.
Her comparison for that response was appropriately cinematic:
“It’s like ‘Avengers, assemble.’”
Pitch Perfect gave Kendrick more than a hit franchise
Kendrick also pushed back against the idea that the original Pitch Perfect was immediately viewed as an enormous theatrical success.
She said there has been some “revisionist history” around the 2012 film, arguing that its initial box office alone would not have been enough to guarantee a sequel. Instead, the movie found another audience through HBO, while Kendrick’s “Cups” performance unexpectedly became a hit in its own right.
More importantly, Kendrick said the franchise gave her relationships and career opportunities that continued long after the Barden Bellas stopped competing.
That makes the timing of her Avengers comparison particularly fitting.
As Kendrick prepares to direct one of Netflix’s most closely watched book adaptations, the support system that helped her through her first directing experience is still there—ready, apparently, to assemble whenever necessary.
For The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, however, Kendrick will eventually have to assemble another very important group.
The cast.
