Kristin Hannah’s best-selling historical fiction book The Nightingale will be made into a movie after all.

The project was first sparked before the COVID-19 pandemic, which slowed momentum on the making of the film. Now the movie has a theatrical release date set and a growing cast attached to the story.

For everything we know about The Nightingale movie, read on.

When will The Nightingale movie come out?

TriStar first set February 12, 2027 as the release date for the film, but then the adaptation was pushed to March 19 so that it has Easter weekend (March 28) to capitalize on. In Feb., the film would have competed with Greta Gerwig’s Narnia film set to release that weekend as well.

Has The Nightingale started production?

Yes, Kristin Hannah posted at the end of March that the film had started production. Elle Fanning did press for Margo’s Got Money Troubles in April before the show’s premiere on Apple TV, but she had hinted as had her sister Dakota, that they would start shooting in a few weeks when Deadline spoke with them at SXSW Film Festival 2026.

RELATED: Hello Sunshine’s President Of Film & Television Lauren Neustadter Previews Upcoming TV Shows ‘Elle’ & ‘Lucky’ And ‘The Nightingale’ Film As Production Gets Underway

Deadline also recently interviewed Lauren Neustadter, President of Film and Television at Reese Witherspoon’s Production Company Hello Sunshine while she was on set in Budapest, where the film is shooting

Who will be in The Nightingale movie?

Sisters Dakota and Elle Fanning, who have been attached to star and produce since the adaptation started gaining traction in 2019, will portray sisters Vianne and Isabelle.

Deadline exclusively reported that Edmund Donovan (Late Fame) landed a starring role alongside the sisters in January 2026. Details of his role are under wraps.

RELATED: TriStar Reignites ‘The Nightingale’ Movie For 2027 Release; ‘To Leslie’s Michael Morris To Direct Fanning Sisters In Adaptation Of Kristin Hannah Novel

Next to join as first reported by Deadline are Mark Rylance (The BFG, Ready Player One) and Shira Haas (Unorthodox, Captain America: Brave New World).

Deadline broke the news of a quartet of castings that round out the film’s ensemble: Albrecht Schuch, Douglas Hodge, Gwilym Lee and Vinette Robinson.

What is Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale about?

The story centers sisters Vianne Mauriac and Isabelle Rossignol, who experience German-occupied France during World War II in their own ways. Vianne, the older sister, is more cautious while Isabelle boasts a rebellious spirit. The sisters split up during the war, “resisting in different ways” as Fanning put it when she did Deadline’s Take Ten interview series.

Who else is behind The Nightingale movie?

Michael Morris is directing the film. Dana Stevens (The Woman King) wrote the script for the film. Elizabeth Cantillon will produce for The Cantillon Company, alongside the Fannings and Brittany Kahan Ward for the Fanning sisters’ production company Lewellen Pictures, and Reese Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter for Hello Sunshine. The Nightingale was the Reese’s Book Club selection for March 2023. Nicole Brown and Shary Shirazi are overseeing for TriStar Pictures.

RELATED: Albrecht Schuch Joins TriStar Pic ‘The Nightingale’

TriStar first acquired the film rights in 2015 with Ann Peacock attached to write. Writer-director Michelle MacLaren and co-writer John Sayles were involved in a later iteration, with the Fannings initially boarding to star in a version helmed by Mélanie Laurent from Stevens’ script. At first, the film was set to hit theaters Christmas Day of 2020, and then it shifted a few more times landing on Dec. 22, 2022, but when the Covid pandemic kept delaying the making of the movie, Laurent stepped back to attend to other projects.

Robert Richardson, our guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, recorded in front of an audience at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic, is one of the most admired cinematographers in Hollywood history.

An artist and craftsman of the first order, Richardson is best known for his many collaborations with three similarly revered filmmakers: 12 with Oliver Stone, including 1986’s Platoon, 1987’s Wall Street, 1989’s Born on the Fourth of July and 1991’s JFK; seven with Martin Scorsese, including 1995’s Casino, 2004’s The Aviator and 2011’s Hugo; and five with Quentin Tarantino, including Kill Bill (2003’s Vol. 1 and 2004’s Vol. 2), 2009’s Inglourious Basterds, 2012’s Django Unchained, 2015’s The Hateful Eight and 2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood — in other words, every Tarantino film of the 21st century except for Death Proof, which Tarantino shot himself. Tarantino has said that in addition to his late film editor, Sally Menke, Richardson is “the greatest artistic collaborator of my life,” adding, “I have never had as much fun making movies as I have had since I started making them with [him].”

Over the 40 years since Richardson shot his first feature film, he has accumulated 10 Oscar nominations, three of which resulted in wins — for JFK, The Aviator and Hugo — a tally surpassed by no living person and equaled by only two other greats who are still with us, Vittorio Storaro and Emmanuel ‘Chivo’ Lubezki. He has also received 11 nominations for the top award of the American Society of Cinematographers, which, in 2019, bestowed upon him its lifetime achievement award.

Earlier this month, Richardson was celebrated at KVIFF in two ways: with the world premiere of Czech filmmaker Jana Hojdová’s long-gestating documentary feature about his life and career, Robert Richardson: The White Devil; and with the presentation of the fest’s highest honor, the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema, which had previously been awarded to the likes of Robert De Niro, Judi Dench, John Travolta, Helen Mirren, Michael Caine and Richardson’s longtime collaborator Stone.

Over the course of this episode, which was recorded right after the premiere of The White Devil, Richardson candidly discusses how lifelong hearing problems may have heightened his sight; how he broke into feature films and why, unlike most cinematographers, he has always preferred to operate his own camera; what it was like working with different kinds of cameras and film stocks on JFK, cranes on Casino, top-light on Kill Bill, digital and 3D on Hugo and ultra-wide on The Hateful Eight; why he agreed to cooperate with Hojdová’s documentary, and why he sees it as a cautionary tale; what to expect from his two upcoming 2026 films, David O. Russell’s Madden and Frankie Shaw’s 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank; plus more.

As Gemma Chan prepares to channel Hollywood’s first Chinese-American movie star for a biopic, she’s looking forward to bringing Anna May Wong‘s life and legacy to the big screen.

The actress recently shared news on her upcoming biopic, which she said is “still in development” with producer Nina Yang Bongiovi and Working Title Films, for which Tony-winning playwright David Henry Hwang is adapting Graham Russell Gao Hodges’ 2012 biography Anna May Wong: From Laundryman’s Daughter to Hollywood Legend.

“We have a script,” she told the Associated Press of the project, which was first announced in 2022. “Hopefully more soon.”

“She’s an icon. She was a woman ahead of her time. I feel like she never properly got her due, and I feel like it really resonates today, her story. Who gets to call this place home? Who gets to be American? That’s something she was wrestling with her entire career and her entire life, so I feel that it’s a really resonant story.”

In March 2022, Chan was announced to star as Wong and executive produce the biopic, with Bongiovi producing alongside Working Title co-chairs Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. Wong’s niece Anna Wong is also attached as a consultant, according to The Hollywood Reporter.