Katie Holly of Dublin-based Blinder Films will team up with Evangelo Kioussis of Mirror Productions as producers of the project, with Simon Baxter (Pandorica) set to executive produce.
Protagonist Pictures are overseeing sales on the project, which is currently at the European Film Market in Berlin.
‘Penny Dreadful’ actress Eva Green is set to portray prolific author Virgina Woolf, whose friendship and love affair with Vita Sackville-West is the subject of the project. Gemma Arterton (The Girl with All the Gifts) is taking the other leading role.
‘Vita & Virginia’ is set to be directed by Chanya Button (Burn Burn Burn) and is largely based on the letters of Woolf and Sackville-West with both Button and Eileen Atkins (Cold Mountain) adapting Atkins' own play for the screen.
The affair and friendship between the two women is said to be the inspiration behind Woolf’s 1928 novel ‘Orlando’.
Chanya Button, Director:
“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.”
Mike Goodridge, CEO, Protagonist Pictures:
“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.”