14
14
What project will bring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson together on screen?
After Jessica Chastain in the lackluster Mothers’ Instinct, Anne Hathaway is about to star alongside another prolific Hollywood actress. The Devil Wears Prada star will be acting opposite Dakota Johnson in a psychological thriller titled Verity—a film adaptation of the dark novel by bestselling author Colleen Hoover.
by Jordan Bako.
Verity, a psychological thriller starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson
“I’ve certainly had a few setbacks lately,” Anne Hathaway, 42, admitted in Vanity Fair in 2024. Her vague remarks seemed to refer to some of her recent less-than-stellar projects. But the actress appears determined to bounce back by lining up major roles. After her transformation into a forty-something gallery owner in a secret relationship with a pop star in The Idea of You (2024), she has been taking on a series of increasingly promising shoots.
Indeed, between Christopher Nolan’s upcoming blockbuster and the dramedy Mother Mary, in which she stars alongside FKA twigs and Hunter Schafer, Anne Hathaway has also found time for another much-anticipated project. She’ll appear in Verity, based on the novel of the same name by Colleen Hoover. Co-starring with her are Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett—recently seen in Trap and Oppenheimer.
A feature film reminiscent of Gone Girl
Billed as a psychological thriller with echoes of Gone Girl (2014), Verity follows the story of Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson), a struggling writer who gets a golden opportunity. After a mysterious car accident, bestselling author Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway) is unable to finish her latest book. Her husband Jeremy (Josh Hartnett) hires Lowen as a ghostwriter to complete the unfinished manuscript… But as Lowen gets closer to the author, she begins to uncover Verity’s dark and disturbing past. Who really is this woman admired by all?
The film adaptation is directed by Michael Showalter, who previously worked with Hathaway on The Idea of You. The screenplay is penned by Nick Antosca (The Act, Channel Zero). While no official images have been released yet, a few photos from the set have stirred up excitement.
In those, Dakota Johnson is seen with a blood-streaked face and coat, standing next to a bumper-smeared car. With shooting recently wrapped in New York, a first teaser was unveiled during the latest edition of CinemaCon in Las Vegas on April 2.
Why is there controversy around Verity?
Verity is expected to follow in the footsteps of It Ends With Us (2024), another Colleen Hoover novel adapted for the screen. While it was critically panned, that film was one of the previous year’s box office hits, grossing over $350 million.
However, it also sparked controversy—first for its allegedly sanitized portrayal of domestic violence, and then due to the ongoing legal dispute between stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, which fueled a media frenzy. Will Verity face a similar fate? The film is set for release in U.S. theaters on May 15, 2026. Until then, anything is possible…
No French release date has been announced yet for Verity (2026) by Michael Showalter.
