Academy Award winner Julia Roberts has officially signed on for the leading role in Amazon MGM Studios‘ upcoming film adaptation of Kill Your Darlings, based on Peter Swanson’s new murder mystery novel which will be published by HarperCollins this June 10, 2025.
In addition to leading the cast, Roberts is set to serve as a producer along with Lisa Gillan and Marisa Yeres Gill through their Red Om Films banner. The film will be directed by James Gray (Paper Tiger), with Scott Stuber producing for United Artists. This marks Roberts and Stuber’s latest collaboration after previously working on 2023’s Leave the World Behind movie. Additional producers are Tribeca Studios’ Jane Rosenthal and Berry Welsh, and Nick Nesbitt, with Joel Gotler and Swanson set as executive producers.
What is Kill Your Darlings about?
The Kill Your Darlings book’s official synopsis reads: “Thom and Wendy Graves have been married for over twenty-five years. They live in a beautiful Victorian on the north shore of Massachusetts. Wendy is a published poet and Thom teaches English literature at a nearby university. Their son, Jason, is all grown up. All is well…except that Wendy wants to murder her husband.
“What happens next has everything to do with what happened before. The story of Wendy and Thom’s marriage is told in reverse, moving backward through time to witness key moments from the couple’s lives—their fiftieth birthday party, buying their home, Jason’s birth, the mysterious death of a work colleague—all painting a portrait of a marriage defined by a single terrible act they plotted together many years ago.
“Eventually we learn the details of what Thom and Wendy did in their early twenties, a secret that has kept them bound together through the length of their marriage. But its power over them is fraying, and each of them begins to wonder if they would be better off making sure their spouse carries their secrets to the grave.”
(Source: The Hollywood Reporter)
