The last Colleen Hoover phenomenon to hit theaters, “It Ends with Us,” arrived with a massive readership and an unusually charged conversation already in place. “Verity” comes with a different charge: darker, stranger, and designed less as a bruised romance than a psychosexual trap door. Think “Rebecca” by way of “Gone Girl,” with authorship, obsession, and domestic dread all tangled up inside a lavish house where the truth is clearly not waiting politely to be found.
Amazon MGM Studios has released the new trailer for “Verity,” directed by Michael Showalter and starring Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett. The film, based on Hoover’s No. 1 New York Times bestseller, is set to arrive only in theaters on October 2, 2026, via Amazon MGM Studios.
Johnson stars as Lowen Ashleigh, a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin, when she accepts what looks like the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, played by Hartnett, hires Lowen to complete the remaining books in a bestselling thriller series written by his wife, Verity Crawford, played by Hathaway, after a mysterious accident leaves Verity unable to finish them herself.
Of course, this is the kind of assignment where the money is good because everything else is poisoned. Once Lowen arrives at the Crawford estate, she discovers a secret, unfinished manuscript that may contain chilling admissions about the family’s past. As she becomes more entangled with Jeremy and his young son Crew, Lowen has to determine whether Verity’s writings are simply lurid fiction, a confession, or the warning signs of a deranged psychopath.
The trailer’s own hook is blunt enough: “There is no light where we’re going.” That tracks with the book’s reputation. “Verity” was self-published in 2018 before growing into a publishing phenomenon, and Grand Central Publishing acquired it in 2021. The novel has spent months on the New York Times Best Sellers list and sold more than one million copies in 2023 alone.
Showalter is an intriguing fit for the material. He previously directed Hathaway in “The Idea of You,” but his filmography has often worked through public image, private longing, and people trying to keep control of their own narrative, whether in “The Big Sick,” “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” or “Hello, My Name Is Doris.” “Verity” pushes those concerns into a more overt thriller register, with Hoover’s most gothic material giving him a chance to lean into suspicion, erotic tension, and the kind of narrative games where every page seems to accuse someone.
The current script is written by Nick Antosca, whose work includes “Channel Zero” and “Brand New Cherry Flavor.” Prior writers on the project included Hoover and Lauren Levine, Hillary Seitz, Angela LaManna, and Will Honley & April Maguire. Antosca and Alex Hedlund produce through Eat the Cat, alongside Showalter and Jordana Mollick through Semi-Formal Productions, Hathaway through Somewhere Pictures, Hoover through Heartbones Entertainment, and Stacey Sher through Shiny Penny. Johnson executive produces alongside Levine, and the film falls under Semi-Formal Productions’ first-look deal with the studio.
The supporting cast includes Ismael Cruz Córdova, Brady Wagner, Irina Dvorovenko, K.K. Moggie, Michael Abbott Jr., and Alex Cooper. For Hoover’s readers, the question is not whether the movie will preserve the novel’s central hook, but how far Showalter, Hathaway, Johnson, and Hartnett will push its games of performance, seduction, and dread.
“Verity” opens only in theaters on October 2, 2026, via Amazon MGM Studios. Watch the trailer below.
