One of BookTok’s most popular reads of all time is getting the silver-screen treatment. Ali Hazelwood’s debut novel, ‘The Love Hypothesis’ is now adapted to a rom-com feature and is set to release on Amazon Prime.
Hazelwood’s contemporary STEM romance has been a staple on romance recommendation lists since it was published in September 2021. It follows Stanford University third-year PhD student Olive Smith who accidentally kisses the most feared professor in the Biology department, Dr Adam Carlson, to convince her friend Anh that her dating life is going well. Olive and Adam then try to convince everyone around them that they are very much in love, but real feelings start to show the longer they fake it.
Originally published online in 2018 as Head over Feet, a Star Wars fan fiction work about the “Reylo” ship between Rey and Kylo Ren, the main characters were renamed Olive and Adam (the latter after Adam Driver) on the novel’s physical publication, on the novel’s physical publication, with all explicit Star Wars references cut, and the characters on the novel’s cover illustration designed after Driver and Daisy Ridley. The work was also based on Hazelwood’s own experience as a PhD student in cognitive neuroscience. According to Vulture, Hazelwood’s agent reached out after the then-professor then expressed her interest in reworking her fics for traditional publishing. Not only did The Love Hypothesis‘s success help propel a Reylo trend in publishing, but Hazelwood has also since transitioned to writing full-time, publishing nine books and four novellas in the past four years.
After 40 weeks on the NYT Best Seller List, PhD student Olive and Professor Adam’s love story was greenlit to become a feature film. Amazon MGM Studios later took the reins, and filming took place throughout summer 2025.
On July 16, 2025, Deadline announced that Riverdale alum Lili Reinhart signed on to both star in and executive-produce The Love Hypothesis. Per the outlet, Set It Up director Claire Scanlon is helming the film, and Ali Hazelwood serves as an executive producer.
Serving as the “grump” to Olive’s sunshine personality is British actor Tom Bateman as Dr. Adam Carlsen. The 36-year-old is best known for appearing in the murder-mystery movies Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, as well as the series Da Vinci’s Demons and Based on a True Story. Fun fact: He’s also married to Star Wars alum Daisy Ridley, who was his Orient Express co-star. She’s since spoken out about her husband starring in Reylo fanfic, noting that she was aware of it, but had forgotten what it was by the time he booked the role.
Rounding out the cast in unconfirmed roles are Adults‘s Rachel Marsh as Olive’s best friend Anh, The White Lotus‘s Nicholas Duvernay as Olive’s ex Jeremy now Anh’s new boyfriend, The Daily Show comedian Jaboukie Young-White as Olive’s other friend Malcolm, and Daredevil: Born Again‘s Arty Froushan as Adam’s colleague Tom.
Hazelwood shared her excitement for the upcoming adaptation. “Honestly, I still can’t believe this is happening?” she wrote. “Elizabeth Cantillon [the film’s producer], Claire Scanlon, and Lili Reinhart have all created, produced, or starred in works that I’m absolutely feral about, and I am beyond honored that they’re choosing to bring their talent to this project.”
She continued, “Books and films are very different media, and I have complete trust in this brilliant team. I cannot wait to see the final product they’ll come up with. I hope they have as much fun filming as I had while writing the book.”
The film comes out September 23rd, just in time for the academic season. Get your lab coats, because there’s going to be a lot of chemistry on screen.
