Emily Henry Fans have been waiting, theorising and fan casting for the upcoming adaptation of Beach Read since the book hit shelves in 2020. Now, we finally know who will play the lead in the film: Patrick Schwarzenegger.
The White Lotus star’s casting as Gus Everett, per Deadline, comes just months after it was confirmed that Phoebe Dynevor would play protagonist January Andrews.
While the announcement has divided fans of the novel — Dev Patel had been the favoured pick among readers online — it’s hard to argue that Schwarzenegger won’t make a compelling Gus: cynical, sardonic, and impossible to ignore. His recent turn as the eldest Ratliff brother in The White Lotus proved he has the range to inhabit a brooding, literary type whose writing style is memorably described in the book as “Hemingway circle-jerk fan fiction.”
And according to Deadline, it was ultimately chemistry that sealed the deal, with Schwarzenegger’s screen test with Dynevor having “blown away filmmakers and the studio.”
Fans will recognise Phoebe Dynevor as Daphne Bridgerton from the smash-hit Netflix period drama Bridgerton, as well as from the critically acclaimed Sundance thriller Fair Play and spy thriller Inheritance, while Patrick Schwarzenegger has been turning heads as Saxon Ratliff in The White Lotus Season 3, and has also appeared in The Terminal List, Gen V, and Ryan Murphy’s American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez.
Yulin Kuang — co-writer of the Netflix Emily Henry adaptation People We Meet on Vacation — is directing from her own script, with veteran producer Neal H. Moritz producing via his Original Films banner, Karina Rahardja exec producing, and Sarah Shepard and Catherine Hughes overseeing for the studio.
What Is Beach Read About?
For those unfamiliar with Henry’s collection of work, Beach Read is (in my opinion) her best book.
follows January Andrews, a romance novelist who has lost her faith in love after her father’s death reveals a devastating secret about his double life. She inherits his beach house and ends up next door to Augustus Everett, a brooding literary fiction writer and her college rival.
To shake their respective creative blocks, they make a bet: January will write a serious literary novel, and Gus will write a romance. They also agree to research each other’s genres by living them. Naturally, this leads to late nights, flirty banter, and an undeniable connection that will tickle the most avid slow-burn lover out there.
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