Elle and Dakota Fanning to Star in "The Nightingale" Film Adaptation, Sets 2027 Release Date

TriStar has set a new February 12, 2027 release date for "The Nightingale," its highly anticipated feature adaptation of Kristin Hannah‘s global bestselling work of historical fiction. 

Gestating for some time, the project has regained traction for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic, enlisting "To Leslie" helmer Michael Morris to direct.

Dakota and Elle Fanning are still set to star and produce, starring together on film for the first time, having first attached to the project in 2019. 

Dana Stevens (The Woman King) penned the script, and Elizabeth Cantillon will produce for The Cantillon Company, alongside the Fannings and Brittany Kahan Ward for Lewellen Pictures, and Reese Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter for Hello Sunshine. 

Nicole Brown and Shary Shirazi are overseeing for TriStar Pictures.

Sources attributed the February 12, 2027 date to the fact that it’s a huge event weekend, with the double holiday of Valentine’s Day that Sunday and President’s Day on Monday. Sunday, February 14 is also Super Bowl Sunday, which presents an opportunity to counterprogram with a film that already has a substantial built-in fanbase. 

"The Nightingale" will also be the first big female-skewing title of the year as the schedule currently stands.

Selling more than 11 million copies worldwide since its 2015 debut after being translated into 45 languages, "The Nightingale" tells the story of two sisters who dare to embark on separate, dangerous paths during World War II in the fight for survival, love and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France.

The book hit No. 1 on the New York Times Best Sellers list and has spent a combined 165 weeks on the list across formats, also dominating NPR’s fiction chart for 45 weeks and being named a Reese’s Book Club Pick. 

In March 2025, a special 10th Anniversary Edition got to No. 2 on the NYT hardcover list, and already this year, the book has sold a million copies.

"The Nightingale" has had a decently long journey to the screen, beginning with TriStar’s move to lock down film rights in 2015, with Ann Peacock coming on to write and Cantillon to produce. (The latter has been with the project ever since.) 

Writer-director Michelle MacLaren and co-writer John Sayles attached to a later iteration, with the Fannings initially coming on to star in a version helmed by Mélanie Laurent from Stevens’ script. Just when it looked like the project would get off the ground, the pandemic resulted in numerous delays, with Laurent stepping back to attend to other projects in the interim.

A two-time Emmy nominee known for his directing on series like Better Call Saul, "13 Reasons Why" and "Kingdom", Morris directed Andrea Riseborough to her first Oscar nomination with his feature directorial debut, the indie drama "To Leslie". His follow-up project on the feature side was "Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy", which enjoyed acclaim as well as international box office success, surpassing $100M globally while premiering on Peacock only in the U.S.

Dakota Fanning will next be seen starring opposite Sarah Snook in Peacock’s upcoming series "All Her Fault". Elle Fanning, meanwhile, is next set to appear in dual roles in Dan Trachtenberg’s "Predator: Badlands", out November 7, and in a starring role alongside Renate Reinsve and Stellan Skarsgard in Joachim Trier’s "Sentimental Value", the winner of Cannes’ "Grand Prix", which is out in limited release via Neon on the same day.