Paltrow Joins Kidman in "Danish Girl"
Gwyneth Paltrow will join Nicole Kidman in “The Danish Girl,” an adaptation of the David Ebershoff novel that tells the story of a relationship between the first post-operative transsexual, Einar Wegener, and his wife Greta.
Thomas Alfredson (“Let the Right One In”) is directing a script by Lucinda Coxon. Gail Mutrux, Anne Harrison and Linda Reisman are producing, along with Kidman and Per Saari.
One afternoon in 1920s Copenhagen, Greta, a portrait painter, asked her husband to stand in for an absent female model. Slipping on a dress, stockings and woman’s shoes began a metamorphosis into Lili. When the photos became wildly popular, Greta encouraged her husband to do more, but a harmless game evolved into something deeper that threatens their marriage.
Kidman had already been attached to play Einar, and Paltrow will play Greta, who stood by her partner through the sex-change operation, finally letting go when she realized the man she married no longer exists. .
Footprint Investments LLC is financing, and international sales are being handled by Kathy Morgan at KMI. Pic is a coproduction between Pretty Pictures in association with Harrison Productions and Blossom Films.
Paltrow most recently wrapped “Iron Man 2,” which opens May 7, 2010.
She’s repped by UTA and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.
Thomas Alfredson (“Let the Right One In”) is directing a script by Lucinda Coxon. Gail Mutrux, Anne Harrison and Linda Reisman are producing, along with Kidman and Per Saari.
One afternoon in 1920s Copenhagen, Greta, a portrait painter, asked her husband to stand in for an absent female model. Slipping on a dress, stockings and woman’s shoes began a metamorphosis into Lili. When the photos became wildly popular, Greta encouraged her husband to do more, but a harmless game evolved into something deeper that threatens their marriage.
Kidman had already been attached to play Einar, and Paltrow will play Greta, who stood by her partner through the sex-change operation, finally letting go when she realized the man she married no longer exists. .
Footprint Investments LLC is financing, and international sales are being handled by Kathy Morgan at KMI. Pic is a coproduction between Pretty Pictures in association with Harrison Productions and Blossom Films.
Paltrow most recently wrapped “Iron Man 2,” which opens May 7, 2010.
She’s repped by UTA and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.
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Great news to see this project is on. Great casting news too.
Posted by: NicFan | 11/06/2009 at 03:24 PM
I would have loved to see Theron or Thurman play the part of Greta, but I realized Kidman might be perceveid as more delicate than these two actresses so they needed to cast someone who might seem even more feminine than she is. Paltrow suits the part, she looks scandinavian enough even though she might be more believable as an English rose.
Although Kidman is probably the one who has the most androgynous body, she exudes more delicatesse than Theron or even Thurman, but that might be because it's hard not to think of the latter as The Bride
Posted by: Jake | 11/06/2009 at 03:34 PM
Just to clarify, the individual's name was Gerda, not Greta... and the backstory given here is inaccurate- she was primarily known as a high fashion illustrator (and to a lesser degree an illustrator of erotica), not a portrait artist...and more importantly the part about-
"One afternoon in 1920s Copenhagen, Greta, a portrait painter, asked her husband to stand in for an absent female model. Slipping on a dress, stockings and woman’s shoes began a metamorphosis into Lili. When the photos became wildly popular, Greta encouraged her husband to do more, but a harmless game evolved into something deeper that threatens their marriage."
-is full of embellishment and inaccuracies- Einar Wegener was most likely physically intersexed and didn't just adopt or indulge his female persona of Lile Elbe as a "harmless game" because Gerda asked him to, and again, Gerda was a fashion illustrator and wasn't taking "photos".
Obviously the novel "The Danish Girl" is a fictionalized account of the life of Lili Elbe, but seeing as how so much of the real lives of transsexual, intersexed and other gender variant people is fictionalized and treated as fodder for sensationalism in the entertainment media, one can only hope that this kind of wholesale speculation and indifference for the facts isn't allowed to ruin a story that is plenty interesting and salacious enough without a bunch of rote Hollywood frippery added to the mix.
It is especially galling to see transsexualism characterized once again as simply some "game" that if indulged will get out of hand, as if it is just a poor choice someone made like dabbling in hard drugs...this is an erroneous and ultimately damaging idea that is perpetuated largely by reporting, film and other media accounts that can't get big headlines with the truth, so they make stuff up at the expense of the lives of transpeople.
Artistic license is one thing and no movie of this kind seems to ever get made without following tired, silly formulas, but at least care enough for the history to get the names right.
Posted by: tina t | 11/07/2009 at 10:48 PM
Variety, please stop your lying that Lili Elbe née Einar Wegener was transsexual.
She was intersex.
Read David Ebershoff's novelization based on real firsthand research, The Danish Girl.
Better yet, take a good, long look at Lili's memoirs, Man into Woman.
The evidence is all in there. Intersex. Not transsexual.
The word 'transsexual' did not even exist in 1931.
The word 'intersex' certainly did - it was coined in 1901.
Please get your facts right, Variety.
Please show some respect for the woman who is a true heroine for a great many other intersex people today.
Please stop telling untruths.
Posted by: Angela Erde | 11/10/2009 at 01:04 AM