"I tend to go into a film not quite knowing who the characters are," says Chloé Zhao, pictured here (left) on location with Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley. "It's always a bit scary the first week of production because that's when we have to find out who they are. Then, about a week in, I go, 'OK, this is what this is.' " Agata Grzybowska/Focus Features The story of the making of Hamnet is one of agony and ecstasy. Reading Maggie O'Farrell's novel, an imagined but meticulously researched retelling of the death of a child that precipitated the writing of Hamlet, is like touching the void.