This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.

This is The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.

Chloe Zhao was only the second woman to win the Oscar for Best Director, and that was for her 2020 film Nomad Land,

which starred Francis McDormant as an itinerant worker.

Chloe Zhao is 43, and she's had a varied career,

ranging from low-budget contemporary westerns

to making a Marvel film called Eternals,

which is a supernatural epic with a colossal budget.

Now Zhao has taken another distinct turn,

to Hamnet, a story about the creative life

and the family life of William Shakespeare.

Based on a novel by Maggie O'Farrell,

Zhao's film is about Shakespeare as a young man,

grieving the loss of his only son.

It stars Paul Muscal and Jesse Buckley.

Chloe Zhao spoke with our staff writer Michael Schulman,

who covers film and entertainment for The New Yorker.

So how did this book and how of this project make its way to you?

I was driving through New Mexico to Tayloride Film Festival,

and then there's when Amblin called me and told me about this project.

Amblin, meaning...

Ambleen, Spielberg's production company.

...