Latest news with #TheLoveHypothesis
India Today
a day ago
- Entertainment
- India Today
Why Gen Z is freaking out over The Love Hypothesis movie casting
What do you get when you mix 'Star Wars' Rey and Kylo fan fiction, a best-selling romance novel, a former 'Riverdale' star, and 'Star Wars' Daisy Ridley's real-life husband? Nope, not the start of a really niche pub quiz. This is the actual casting news behind 'The Love Hypothesis' you don't know what I am talking about, then don't worry, it'll all make sense in the next few minutes. I here's the thing. Ali Hazelwood, a renowned novelist, wrote a romantic-comedy novel called, and you guessed it, 'The Love Hypothesis'. It is about a third-year PhD candidate (Olive Smith) and a young professor (Adam Carlsen) who agree to fake date each other. Until Olive's best friend is convinced she is not single and definitely not in love with her best friend's crush. If you're a rom-com fan like me, I am sure this plot is calling for you. The book instantly became a fan favourite, and now they are converting it into a film. Now let's talk about why everybody (mostly me) is freaking out over the Hazelwood's 'The Love Hypothesis' didn't start as a story dedicated to the genre (rom-com). It was originally fan fiction. Yes, Hazelwood, just like most of us, was fangirling (more like geeking) over 'Star Wars'. I mean, who wouldn't? And she was absolutely obsessed with Rey and Kylo Ren's relationship in the movie. And she wanted to write a cute romantic story filled with some comic scenes here and there.I am sure now you have some idea where this is leading to. If not? Here's more. Recently, the announcement for the book's adaptation came through. And 'Riverdale' star Lili Reinhart was announced to play Olive. But the real twist that no one saw coming (except maybe Tumblr circa 2016) was the casting of Tom Bateman as Adam Carlsen. Tom Bateman is the real-life husband of Daisy Ridley. Why is this a big deal? Because Daisy Ridley played Rey in 'Star Wars'. Yes, the same Rey who was the inspiration behind Olive's character. Honestly, you couldn't write this. Except someone literally 'Star Wars' fan fiction was posted online under the title 'Head Over Feet', with the OG couple. It got picked up by a publisher. The lightsabers were swapped for lab coats, but the core dynamic? Still there. Olive's socially awkward brilliance? Peak Rey. Adam's emotionally repressed academia? Classic Kylo. So, yes, 'The Love Hypothesis' has deep nerd roots, and I mean that in the most affectionate way possible. Now to Tom might know him from 'Death on the Nile', 'Behind Her Eyes', or 'Vanity Fair'. He's got serious screen presence, brooding, charming, and effortlessly intense. Basically, he was built to play Professor Adam Carlsen. And when you factor in the fact that he's married to Daisy Ridley? That casting choice hits on so many online are losing it, naturally. One person wrote, 'He's married to Daisy Ridley. OMG full circle moment.' Another declared it 'the best uno reverse card in casting history.' Someone else chimed in with, 'Not Adam but Rey's husband playing Adam perfection.' Honestly? Fair let's not forget Lili Reinhart, who's not only starring as Olive but producing the film too. She's been vocal about wanting to do justice to this story, and between her casting and this cosmic Bateman-Ridley twist, it's safe to say the fans are being if you haven't read the book, or don't know your Adam Carlsen from your Adam Driver, there is still something for you in store. If you're into rom-coms, emotionally complex science nerds, or geek out over fan theories that somehow become real, 'The Love Hypothesis' deserves a spot on your Because this casting is chaotic in the best way. A character inspired by Daisy Ridley's Rey now played opposite her real-life husband? That's fan fiction logic turned cinematic reality. It's unhinged in the most deliciously meta way, and it's got the internet in a yeah, grab your popcorn, fire up the group chat, and get ready to spiral. This one's for book lovers, fandom kids, and anyone who lives for a full-circle moment. You couldn't script even if you tried.- Ends
Elle
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Elle
Lili Reinhart Will Star in the Movie Adaptation of 'The Love Hypothesis'
Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. Ali Hazelwood's bestselling romance novel The Love Hypothesis is officially coming to the big screen. The forthcoming film from Amazon MGM Studios and MRC will be directed by Claire Scanlon (Set It Up) and penned by Sarah Rothschild (The Sleepover). Hazelwood will also executive produce the adaptation. Here's everything we know about the project so far. The Love Hypothesis follows a third-year biology Ph.D. candidate named Olive Smith who begins a fake relationship with a professor, Dr. Adam Carlsen. Lili Reinhart (Riverdale) will play Olive Smith, the Ph.D. candidate. (Reinhart will also executive produce the film.) On July 16, she shared the news on Instagram with a photo of her holding a copy of the book while wearing white scrubs. She captioned the post: '👀🧬❤️ #thelovehypothesis.' She also posted a fun TikTok of her in a bookstore. In the video, she says, 'I'm looking for a book that could be turned into a really good romantic comedy that I could possibly be the lead of.' A bookstore employee then hands her a copy of The Love Hypothesis. She posted another video of her in a lab, wearing scrubs, and highlighting a section of the book: Reinhart's co-star will be Tom Bateman (Death on the Nile). He'll play the professor, Dr. Carlsen. She celebrated Bateman's casting announcement with a third TikTok video introducing his character and their romance arc. In a statement, Hazelwood expressed her excitement about the upcoming adaptation. 'Elizabeth Cantillon [the film's producer], Claire Scanlon, and Lili Reinhart have all created, produced, or starred in works that I'm absolutely feral about, and I am beyond honored that they're choosing to bring their talent to this project,' she said, per Deadline. She continued, 'Books and films are very different media, and I have complete trust in this brilliant team. I cannot wait to see the final product they'll come up with. I hope they have as much fun filming as I had while writing the book.' As of now, Reinhart and Co. have yet to announce a release date, but stay tuned. This story will be updated.
Elle
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Elle
All About Daisy Ridley's Husband, Tom Bateman
Actress Daisy Ridley is a well-known figure in the Star Wars universe, playing the powerful Rey, first introduced in 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In a 2021 interview with Tatler, Ridley explained that the role changed how she approaches sharing her private and romantic life, saying, 'When I signed on to Star Wars, there was nothing in my contract that said, 'Your life will be talked about.'' 'It got to the point where I realized so much of my life was out there,' she continued. 'I thought it would be nice to have something that's for me, that isn't for everybody else. I just thought I would keep that separate.' Ridley has stuck to her decision, keeping her relationship with husband Tom Bateman very private. But Bateman is an actor as well, and in July 2025 he was cast in the film adaptation of The Love Hypothesis. Why is this role so relevant to Ridley? It's based on former Star Wars fan fiction by Ali Hazelwood. Her original story published on Ao3 was about Rey and her antagonist/ally, Kylo Ren, played in The Force Awakens by Adam Driver. Driver and Ridley had chemistry on screen and many fans 'shipped' them as a romantic couple. Bateman has been cast as Adam Carlsen, originally based on Driver's character. The story has changed significantly since its first online publication and is now set in the world of a university. In the story, Professor Carlsen embarks on a fake relationship with PhD candidate Olive Smith, to be played by Lili Reinhart. Reinhart shared a TikTok about the casting notice in which she and Bateman are shaking hands as they agree on their phony love story (that might become real). Fans are now even more curious about Bateman and his relationship with Ridley. Here's everything to know so far. Bateman is a British actor raised in Jericho, a suburb of Oxford. Both his parents were teachers and he has thirteen siblings and half-siblings, including a fraternal twin brother named Merlin, per his IMDB bio. Of his family, he told Above the Line in 2023, 'It's funny because people think it's so crazy, but obviously whatever you grow up with is the norm. It doesn't matter what extreme, bizarre circumstances you might grow up in; it's normal for you. It's when you sort of start stepping out into the world and people go, 'Wait, you are one of 13.' You go, 'Oh, I suppose that is a bit different.'' He studied at Cherwell School then joined the National Youth Theatre. He went on to study theater at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and was awarded the Leverhulme Scholarship. He has an extensive theater resume and was a member of the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company. He told Above the Line of LAMDA, 'It was a really cool school. I mean, there are so many amazing drama schools in the U.K. I could only afford to apply to a couple of them, and LAMDA was one of them. I was so lucky to get in. It's an amazing school.' He also has a significant list of credits in film and television, including Peacock's Based on a True Story, Beecham House, and Vanity Fair. Both starred in Kenneth Branagh's 2017 adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express, according to People. It is not clear when they started dating. Rumors of their relationship and engagement followed them for years before Ridley admitted in a January 2023 interview with Rolling Stone that they were officially married. In a 2019 interview with Marie Claire, Ridley was asked about their rumored engagement, saying only, 'It's a really nice ring that I wear.' 'The thing Is, I've never talked about my personal life, so I won't talk about it now,' she added. 'I'm so aware of how much information about my life is out there, so if there's one thing I don't want to talk about.' The couple has worked together since MOTOE on their 2024 film, Magpie. During the premiere at the SXSW festival, Bateman told CBR that Ridley is one of his 'favorite actors.' 'Being able to write to what I know her strengths are was so rewarding,' he said. 'I could be really daring and bold and write a whole scene with no dialogue and just her character's thoughts. Sam [Yates] our director, he agreed. He said 'Man you can just stick a camera on Daisy and she's got it going and she can hold that.'' 'It was super, super rewarding,' he added. Magpie is actually a thriller about a collapsing marriage, but during a press event, Ridley shared, 'It's funny, because people tell me and Tom that we're the happiest married people they know.' Per the Daily Mail, Ridley also told Radio Times, 'I found that process wonderful because our tastes align on almost everything. I think he's a brilliant writer, and we are so clear about what it is that we wanted to make. And we achieved that.'
UAE Moments
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- UAE Moments
Cast Revealed for Viral BookTok Adaptation 'Love Hypothesis'
The much-anticipated adaptation of Ali Hazelwood's BookTok phenomenon The Love Hypothesis is officially underway, and the cast has finally been revealed. Here's everything fans need to know: Lili Reinhart as Olive Smith Riverdale alum Lili Reinhart will headline the film as Olive Smith, the determined PhD candidate caught in a fake‑dating experiment. Reinhart is also serving as an executive producer, bringing personal passion and creative control to the project, one she unveiled via TikTok and Instagram, along with her first on‑set photos featuring a dramatic brunette look. Tom Bateman as Dr. Adam Carlsen Tom Bateman, known for Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, has been cast as the enigmatic Professor Adam Carlsen. His real‑life connection—he's married to Daisy Ridley, inspiration behind the novel's Star Wars–derived origins—gives his casting extra meta resonance. Strong Production Team The adaptation is being directed by Claire Scanlon (Set It Up, Abbott Elementary) from a script by Sarah Rothschild. Produced by Elizabeth Cantillon with executive producers including Reinhart and Hazelwood herself, the project taps formidable talent from rom‑com and TV alike. In Production Now—No Release Date Yet Filming began mid‑July in Montreal, as confirmed by on‑set TikToks and union listings, with production expected to wrap by late summer. As of now, the release plan remains undisclosed. From Fan-Fic Roots to Big Screen Originally published on Archive of Our Own as a Reylo fan‑fiction, Hazelwood's bestselling novel was acquired in 2022 by Bisous Pictures. Hazelwood says she 'can't believe this is happening' and fully trusts the stellar creative team. With Lili Reinhart's charismatic lead, Tom Bateman's smart casting, and a talented creative squad, The Love Hypothesis adaptation is shaping up to be a charming, witty rom‑com transition from the page to the screen. Stay tuned—this is one romance story that may just win hearts all over again.
Metro
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
This horny book adaption's cast guarantees we'll all be obsessed with the film
A fresh casting announcement has absolutely thrilled fans and convinced me that the film in question could end up as one of the most popular and anticipated movies in years. It could also signal the early era of another rom-com giant, à la Richard Curtis, or the coming of a film about love with the power to impact pop culture like When Harry Met Sally or xx. I am, of course, talking about the announcement via Deadline of Lili Reinhart and Tom Bateman to play the romantic leads in the movie adaptation of Ali Hazelwood's best-selling novel (and – I cannot stress this enough – actual BookTok sensation) The Love Hypothesis. For those who haven't been wrapped up in the quite astounding way TikTok has revived the publishing industry since lockdown, even garnering its own name for that corner of the social site, The Love Hypothesis was one of the platform's biggest breakout successes following the novel's formal publication in 2021. But what has now shifted this film up a notch in terms of anticipation is how the casting has seemingly leaned into the famous early inspirations of Hazelwood's book. And it's this which makes me confident everyone's obsession is about to go stratospheric. The Love Hypothesis follows PhD student Olive Smith (Reinhart), a rising star in Stanford University's biology department, who ends up in a classic fake dating situation with a hotshot professor, Adam Carlsen (Bateman). Everything kicks off when she does the totally normal thing of panic kissing him at the lab to convince her best friend she has a boyfriend. And he does the totally normal thing of agreeing afterwards to maintain the lie for… reasons. However, The Love Hypothesis actually began in 2018 as Head Over Feet, a piece of Star Wars fan fiction published online by Hazelwood, which was inspired by the 'Reylo' shipping many fans did between the characters of Rey (Daisy Ridley) and antagonist Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). This is a romance that actually almost bore fruit in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – and it's one that now has another fascinating link to The Love Hypothesis, for Bateman in the role of Adam is Rey actress Ridley's husband in real life. Although some were holding out for Driver to take on the role his character inspired, many are tickled pink by this meta casting move – 'I'm cackling' posts are littered across social media – whether it was deliberate or not. 'The concept of playing the love interest in fan fiction about your wife is kind of insane, I think Tom Bateman won in life,' tweeted Alysa, while @rejectedcarebear wrote on Reddit: 'This is actually the best part of the entire movie.' 'They had a chance and they took it for sure haha!' added another fan, while @pertifty shared: 'I love this timeline we are living. I wonder why she didn't want to play Olive if her husband is playing Adam??' (As many then explained, there is such a thing as too on the nose.) The excitement alone that's been drummed up by the casting announcement of two semi well-known actors – Reinhart made her name on Riverdale and Bateman appeared in Da Vinci's Demons as well as Sir Kenneth Branagh's star-studded Murder on the Orient Express – confirms this is a watershed moment for TikTok and cinema. Because now we've gone from mild interest that this adaptation is happening to fully seated for it. And Reinhart is a canny operator, fueling fan excitement with lots of fun posts about the film on – where else – but TikTok. Yes, there have been popular BookTok adaptations previously, such as Casey McQuiston's Red, White & Royal Blue and Robinne Lee's The Idea of You. Both, co-incidentally, star Nicholas Galitzine and were made for Amazon's streaming service Prime Video. The Love Hypothesis is going a step further, being produced by Amazon MGM Studios. This suggests the company's confidence in the movie's cinematic success but also means its streaming home will likely end up being Prime Video too. Could this company be the next rom-com powerhouse, snapping up the major romance book titles that capture the zeitgeist? @lilireinhart Olive Smith 🩷 #thelovehypothesis ♬ Lover – Taylor Swift And let's not beat around the bush, The Love Hypothesis will be bigger than those previous films anyway because it's hornier – don't let the cartoon humans on the book's front cover fool you, Hazelwood likes a lot of detail in her sex scenes. Many audience members will be pulled in simply by curiosity over how that might look onscreen; let's call it the Fifty Shades of Grey factor. If The Love Hypothesis does well, there's also several other Hazelwood novels ripe for adaption – from Love on the Brain to Problematic Summer Romance and Deep End (for the uninitiated, that one will truly have you blushing). More Trending Hazelwood, a real-life former neuroscience professor has made a name for herself as a 'STEMinist' author thanks to her female characters often being in science and tech fields and academia, drawing upon her own experience. She's also an expert at the genre's tropes of pining and misunderstandings but puts them in modern workplace settings. This could easily be what the next wave of rom-coms looks like if they're inspired or directly drawn from the pen of Hazelwood. We'd be moving on from Richard Curtis's bumbling, British and sweary romances to Hazelwood's quirky, introverted and often American heroines. And I think the world of onscreen rom-coms is more than ready to embrace The Love Hypothesis as the start of its next phase. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. 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