Gemma Arterton and Eva Green To Star In 'Vita & Virginia'

Gemma Arterton ("Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters") and Eva Green ("Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children") are set to star in a biographical romance drama "Vita & Virginia," a movie based on the love and friendship between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West. It will be directed by Chanya Button and will be launched at Berlin's European Film Market.

According to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, the script is based on Eileen Atkins 1992 play of the same title. (Button co-wrote the screenplay with Atkins.) Green portrays Woolf, while Arterton depicts Sackville-West. The story focuses on their lesbian romance despite being both married-Woolf to Leonard Woolf, Sackville-West to Harold Nicolson. Their affair lasted for nearly a decade, as confirmed in their letters and diary entries. Moreover, Sackville-West was also the inspiration in Woolf's novel "Orlando." Although the affair ended, the two women remained friends until the death of Woolf in 1941.

Button offered a glimpse of the plot and shared on Variety, "Focusing on the time in 1927-8 during which Woolf wrote 'Orlando,' the novel their relationship inspired, 'Vita & Virginia' will be a visceral love story, a vivid exploration of creativity, and an energized perspective on one of our most iconic writers." She discussed how women of the past were commonly associated with "oppression, bound by the duties of marriage, propriety and domesticity." She emphasized that "Vita & Virginia," through the unconventional nature of their relationship, "bent these institutions to their will at great personal cost."

Meanwhile, Sackville-West's son Nigel Nicolson wrote, as published on The Guardian, "The effect of Vita on Virginia is all contained in Orlando, the longest and most charming love letter in literature."

The film's full cast is yet to be disclosed, including its theatrical release. In a statement, Mike Goodridge, CEO of Protagonist Pictures, offered some details on what viewers can expect from the film. He noted that the movie would show a "playful and sexual" Woolf, a far cry from the gloomy persona she was often associated with. Sackville-West, on the other hand, would embody London's high society during the 1920s.