Inside ‘The Love Hypothesis’: How Director Claire Scanlon, Star Lili Reinhart and More Adapted BookTok’s Biggest Obsession

Producer Elizabeth Cantillon and Ali Hazelwood’s agent Mirabel Michelson also reflect on the viral bestseller, falling in love with the material and bringing key moments to the screen. The Love Hypothesis creative team and Lili Reinhart talk adapting Ali Hazelwood's bestselling STEM romance for Prime Video. Some stories refuse to stay on the page. The Hollywood Reporter’s Beyond the Book column explores what happens when books make the leap to screen and beyond — unpacking what stayed, changed, how it was done and why it matters with the creatives who made it. “You can tell by my talking about this, I’m still nervous,” director Claire Scanlon admits while on a Zoom with The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the release of Prime Video‘s The Love Hypothesis.

The filmmaker is alluding to a much-discussed moment of the bestselling book (Chapter 16 — a rather, ahem, steamy sequence) in the new film adaptation, debuting this week on Prime Video. That trepidation is no false modesty. There’s a heightened fan anticipation that Scanlon and the rest of the creative team are aware they’re up against. Authored by Ali Hazelwood, the story began as Star Wars’ Reylo fan fiction (featuring Daisy Ridley’s Rey and Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren) published to Archive of Our Own in 2018. The romance follows Olive Smith (Lili Reinhart), a graduate