Deadline is reporting that Irish actors Denise Gough and Fiona Shaw are joining the cast of Wash Westmoreland’s Gabrielle Sidonie Colette biopic, Colette.
Colette, the iconic French writer born in 1873 is known for novels including ‘Gigi’, ‘Cheri’ and ‘Break of Day’. Colette was married to the celebrated Parisian wit Willy Gauthier-Villars. Willy, fourteen years older than his wife was one of the most notorious libertines in Paris. He introduced Colette into avant-garde intellectual and artistic circles, and while engaging in sexual affairs himself, he also encouraged Colette’s own lesbian dalliances.
The couple separated in 1906, and Colette would go on to flourish as a writer, producing most of her most celebrated works in the subsequent decades. The multi-talented Frenchwoman, also a mime, an actress and a journalist, was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1948.
The pair will join leads Keira Knightley and Dominic West, as well as British stars Robert Pugh and Rebecca Root, in the film, which is due to begin shooting this week in the UK, Hungary and France.
Westmoreland, best known for Still Alice, directs from his own script, which was co-written with Richard Glatzer and Rebecca Lenkiewicz. The film is produced by Pamela Koffler and Christine Vachon for Killer Films, Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley for Number 9 Films, and Michel Litvak and Gary Michael Walters for Bold Films, with support from the BFI.
We’re delighted to reunite Killer Films after the phenomenal global success of Patricia Highsmith’s unofficial autobiography Carol, on another story of a female twentieth century literary icon, the fabulously talented Colette. Colette’s struggles with finding her voice in an exciting turn of the century belle époque Paris, draws instant parallels with female artists today and is a tailor-made role for one of the world’s leading actors, Keira Knightley.
Elizabeth Karlsen, Producer – Number 9 Films
HanWay Films (International) and WME Global (U.S.) are handling sales for Colette at the Cannes Marché du Film.