Effie

[Jan]

Ooh, this sounds like it could be a goodie! From Collider (also reported by Production Weekly):

Actress/Screenwriter Emma Thompson has been working on a biopic of Effie Gray for some time now, and it appears that it’s finally gearing up to go into production. When we spoke with Carey Mulligan back in March, she told us that she had read the Effie script a while back and was previously attached to the project, but she hadn’t heard anything as of late. It now appears that Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones) will take on the title role instead. Production Weekly says that the Thompson-scripted project will also star Orlando Bloom, Greg Wise (Johnny English), Imelda Staunton (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix), and Thompson herself.

Gray was the wife of English art critic John Ruskin, and became entangled in a famous Victorian love triangle that has been adapted into more than a few novels and plays. Without consummating the relationship, Gray left her husband, had the marriage annulled, and married Ruskin’s protégé John Everett Millius. Greg Wise (who is also Thompson’s husband) is reported to play Ruskin, with Bloom assumed to be portraying Millius. Thompson is no stranger to screenwriting, as she won the Academy Award for it with 1995’s Sense and Sensibility.

After some Googling, it seems she's been working on the script for at least 2 years.

[Adrianne]

Oh, this sounds extremely promising. Thank you for the heads up, Jan.

Orlando as a protégé and love interest. I can't wait.

[Jules]

This does sound good! Thanks for posting, Jan.

[Lori]

Woop woop! Sounds good to me! Thanks Jan!

[Welshwoman]

This sounds very, very good. Thank you, Jan, for the find.

[aliza]

Be still my This sounds excellent. Lots of smoldering brown glances beneath long eyelashes?

I'm for it.

Aliza

[Fleur]

Excellent!

Thanks, Jan!

[serendipity]

Hmmm. I know Emma Thompson does quality work, so this sounds very promising.

[desertflorece]

Be still my This sounds excellent. Lots of smoldering brown glances beneath long eyelashes?

I'm for it.

Aliza

I was thinking along the same lines, Aliza!

Thanks for sharing!

[Kim]

That sounds so exciting and another interesting role for Orlando!

He will also be working with another respected actress, first Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs and now Emma Thompson!

Thank you so much Jan for bringing over this awesome news!

Kim

[Patty]

This is an amazing cast. I adore Emma Thompson and her Sense and Sensibility is one of my favorite movies. This is such a Romantic story and the thought of Orlando as a Pre-Raphaelite painter is almost too good to be true. By the way, his name is actually John Everett Millais, in case you want to peruse his paintings at Wikipedia.

[HeySailor]

Oh goody! Another film role!

[chitosmommy]

This sounds good, Jan! Thanks for the find.

[Jan]

Patty, I'm ashamed that I didn't make the connection - I'm more a fan of Waterhouse and Alma-Tadema, but Millais's Ophelia is one of my very favorites.

Very interesting story, and the 'triangle' was quite the Victorian scandal.

Can't wait!!

[Geri]

Lots of smoldering brown glances beneath long eyelashes?

Yes, please.

[Sassafras]

Can't wait for this one! Thanks, Jan.

[lauren33]

Oh yeah! Bring it on! This sounds very interesting.

Thanks Jan!

[Elvira]

Another period piece? Bring it on! This is good news, indeed.

I do hope this project will see the light of day, the talent attached to it is so skillful that it has to be made. Besides the story and the subject matter is quite delicious, and in such good hands can yield wonderful results.

Patty, thanks for the link and the subsequent art-history lesson. Next time I go to London, the Tate London is on my list of places to visit.

Jan, great find. Thanks a million.

[Summer Day]

This sounds very good. Thanks for posting the news, Jan.

[Jules]

This article provides a few more possible plot details:

According to Production Weekly, 16 year old Saoirse Ronan is to play the title role in the Emma Thompson scripted "Effie" with Orlando Bloom, Greg Wise, Imelda Staunton and Thompson co-starring. Carey Mulligan was previously attached to this role. If true, Saoirse seems once again to be playing a role older than her years.

Written by Academy Award® winner Emma Thompson, EFFIE is a sharp, entertaining and witty story that vividly conjures up passionate characters driven to extremes by the repressive rules of their time.

John Ruskin – the renowned art critic famously dubbed “The Greatest Victorian” takes young Effie Gray as his wife. Effie is twenty years younger and her expectations of marital love are confounded by her husband’s bizarre and troubled personal behaviour. She must also contend with Ruskin’s controlling and snobbish mother.

In an attempt to redraw their relationship, Effie and John move to Venice so John may continue his work as Effie seeks solace in the beauty of the city and its people. Venice does little to relieve the stress of their already fragile relationship, and so the unhappy couple move to Scotland accompanied by Ruskin’s protégé, the handsome artist John Everett Millais.

As Millais witnesses Ruskin’s disdain for Effie and how truly disconnected the couple are, he begins to feel for her in a way that her husband cannot.

Effie must attempt to escape her poisonous marriage without alerting the scandal mongers and attempt to secure romantic fulfillment in the arms of her husband’s young artist friend.

This is a powerful and affectionate take on an extraordinary, true story from the pen of Emma Thompson who also plays Effie’s ally, confidante and saviour, Lady Eastlake.

[Tahiri]

Ooh, this has potential. Thanks Jan And Jules. I like the pre-Raphaelite painters and I think Millais was the only really financially successful one. If I remember correctly, he and Effie had ten children. In fact we can reasonably expect a decent love scene don't you think? (As a contrast to her being still a virgin after her first marriage ended, of course! )

T.

[Kim]

I can definitely picture Orlando playing John Everett Millais, it sounds like a role that is right up his alley.

Thank you Jules for the latest article, this sounds very promising.

Kim

[Dati]

Thank you, Jan! The script sounds like an interesting challenge for the actors, I am already looking forward to seeing the movie.

[Jules]

Cinema Blend Article

Interesting discussion re: the age difference

For a while Carey Mulligan was "attached," as she was to so many other projects that never came to fruition, to Emma Thompson's Effie, a biopic about the 19th century scandalmaker who married famous writer John Ruskin only to annul her marriage to him and run off with his protege, pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais.

Even though Mulligan is only 25, though, she's been traded in on this one for a younger actress-- though in this case it's far more appropriate to the story. Production Weekly reports that Saoirse Ronan is instead set to star in the film, which Thompson wrote and will also play a small role in. The film also now stars Orlando Bloom and Greg Wise-- presumably as the two other corners of the love triangle, with Bloom as the younger painter Millais and Wise as Ruskin-- and Imelda Staunton in an unspecified role. Yes, both of these actors are way, way too old to be romantic leads to the 16-year-old Ronan, but that's pretty true to the historical record; Effie Gray was only 17 when she married 31-year-old Ruskin. Bloom is still a little too old to play Millais, who was the same age as Gray, but casting her opposite an older actor will help age up Ronan, who will need to play Gray at age 23 as well.

Effie will be Thompson's first non-Nanny McPhee screenplay since the 2001 effort for the TV film Wit, and given that she won an Oscar for her 1995 Sense and Sensibility screenplay, there's good reason to look forward to her return to the page. Between the fascinating love triangle story and the remarkable cast, Effie sounds like something every prestige film nerd should look forward to while the rest of you salivate over Avengers casting rumors.

[Summer Day]

Thanks, Jules, for the last articles. This movie sounds very promising.