Dakota Johnson joins Anne Hathaway in Colleen Hoover’s ‘Verity’ adaptation

Dakota Johnson
| Photo Credit: Andrew Medichini

Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett are set to share the silver screen with Oscar-winning actress Anne Hathaway for the upcoming film Verity. It is based on the No.1 New York Times bestseller of the same name by Colleen Hoover.

The film will be helmed by The Baxter director Michael Showalter and will be released in theatres. The current script is written by Nick Antosca. Prior drafts were penned by Colleen Hoover & Lauren Levine, Hillary Seitz, Angela LaManna, and Will Honley & April Maguire.

Deadline states that the plot revolves around Lowen Ashleigh, a struggling writer who, after accepting the offer of a lifetime, is on the verge of financial collapse. The husband of best-selling mystery author Verity Crawford (Hathaway), Jeremy Crawford (Hartnett), has hired Ashleigh (Johnson) to finish the books in a popular series that his wife is unable to finish due to an unexplained injury. Ashleigh gradually discovers that things are not quite as they seem after arriving at the opulent Crawford estate. She learns about the existence of a hidden, incomplete manuscript that might reveal disturbing truths about the family’s past.

‘Verity’ was self-published in 2018. It was loved by the readers and therefore it spent months on the bestsellers list selling more than 1 million copies in 2023 alone. Hoover’s novel ‘It Ends With Us’ got the film adaptation of the same name which starred Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni in the lead roles. It was released in theatres earlier this year in August.

Dakota Johnson was last seen in the Marvel film, Madame Web. It was directed by SJ Clarkson and starred Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, Celeste O’Connor, Emma Roberts and Adam Scott in prominent roles. Madame Web stars Johnson as a clairvoyant paramedic and is tenuously linked to Sony Pictures’ picture slate, which includes both the Venom films and 2022’s Morbius starring Jared Leto. She will be next seen in the films Materialists and Splitsville.