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Carol Writer Phyllis Nagy to Write & Direct Dusty Springfield Biopic
Carol Writer Phyllis Nagy to Write & Direct Dusty Springfield Biopic
The out screenwriter of the lesbian-themed Carol will direct Gemma Arterton as the famed British singer.Â
After years of rumors about a Dusty Springfield biopic in the works, it's finally happening.Out Carol screenwriter Phyllis Nagy will write and direct So Much Love, a biopic that chronicles iconic queer chanteuse Dusty Springfield's making of her legendary Dusty in Memphis album, The Guardian reports.
The star of Their Finest and Gemma Bovary, Gemma Arterton, is slated to portray the British soul singer famed for tunes including "Just a Little Lovin'" and "The Windmills of My Mind." Arterton recently wrapped another queer role playing Virginia Woolf's lover Vita Sackville-West opposite Elizabeth Debicki in the upcoming Vita & Virginia.
The biopic, set in 1968, will follow the "Son of a Preacher Man" singer "as she navigates her way through the politics of the recording studio and the city, and will also explore her encounter with the music of Motown, her stand against apartheid policies during her aborted South African tour and her thorny brushes with men in the music industry," according to the synopsis.
The Springfield biopic isn't the first time Nagy has adapted a true story. She wrote and directed the 2005Annette Bening and Ben Kingsley vehicle Mrs. Harris, based on the captivating celebrity murder mystery in which Jean Harris was accused of killing her lover, Herman Tarnower, cardiologist and co-author of The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet.
In 2015, Nagy was Oscar-nominated for her screenplay for the lesbian-themed Carol, based on her friend Patricia Highsmith's 1952 novel about a shop girl (Rooney Mara) who falls for a New Jersey socialite and mother (Cate Blanchett).
So Much Love, from Carol producers Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley of Number 9 films, will begin production in the United States and the United Kingdom in the spring of 2019, according to The Guardian.
"Dusty Springfield has long been a hero of mine -- an innovative, brilliant artist and a complex, contradictory woman -- I can't wait to bring her to life on screen," Nagy said of the LGBTQ icon, according to Deadline.
