Eva Green and Gemma Arterton are set to star in Chanya Button’s “Vita & Virginia,” which Protagonist Pictures will launch to buyers at Berlin’s European Film Market this week.
The movie tracks the friendship and love affair between Virginia Woolf (Green) and Vita Sackville-West (Arterton), which formed the inspiration for Woolf’s novel “Orlando.”
Button commented: “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.”
Button added: “We so often associate women of the past with oppression, bound by the duties of marriage, propriety and domesticity; but what ‘Vita & Virginia’ offers is an example of a relationship where bold, brilliant women bent these institutions to their will at great personal cost.”
Button, who made her feature debut in 2015 with “Burn Burn Burn,” co-wrote the screenplay for “Vita & Virginia” with Eileen Atkins, on whose stage play the film is based.
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Evangelo Kioussis of Mirror Productions and Katie Holly of Blinder Films produce. Green, Arterton and Mirror’s Simon Baxter are executive producers.
Protagonist CEO Mike Goodridge commented: “We just love this witty and evocative screenplay by Eileen Atkins and Chanya Button. This is a playful and sexual Virginia Woolf, far removed from the gloom often associated with her, and Vita Sackville-West is a vivacious and flamboyant character who dominates high society in London in the 1920s.”
