Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale) and Michael Stuhlbarg (The Shape of Water, The Post, Call Me by Your Name) will star in Shirley, adapted from Susan Scarf Merrell's novel about a young couple that moves in with author Shirley Jackson and her Bennington College professor-husband, Stanley Hyman (Stuhlbarg), "in the hopes of starting a new life. Instead, they find themselves fodder for a psycho-drama that inspires Jackson's next major novel," Deadline reported.
Directed by Josephine Decker (Madeline's Madeline) from an adaptation by Sarah Gubbins (I Love Dick), the project is scheduled to begin shooting this summer. Decker said: "No two people write more wildly rich female characters than Shirley Jackson and Sarah Gubbins. It's an honor to bring their female sorcery to life with these incredible partners. I can't wait to witness Elisabeth Moss' visceral inhabitation of Shirley's beautiful tortured spirit and Michael Stuhlbarg's unflinchingly charismatic-while-cruel Stanley.”