Fresh off a strong turn in underrated crime drama The Drop, Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts has joined the cast of The Danish Girl, a period love story to be helmed by Les Misérables director Tom Hooper.
Schoenarts, whose previous films include Bullhead and Rust & Bone, will act opposite a trio of tremendously talented stars, including The Theory of Everything‘s Eddie Redmayne, veritable Next Big Thing Alicia Vikander (her upcoming films include Ex Machina, Testament of Youth, The Man from UNCLE, Tulip Fever and The Light Between Oceans) and The Rum Diary‘s Amber Heard.
The Danish Girl, adapted from the novel by David Ebershoff by Lucinda Coxon (The Crimson Petal and the White), focuses on the unusual romance between Danish painter Einar Wegener (Redmayne) and his wife Gerda (Vikander), also an accomplished painter. In 1930, Einar became one of the first men to ever undergo a sex change operation. The synopsis for Ebershoff’s acclaimed novel reads as follows:
A stunning first novel that probes the mysteries of sex, gender, and love with insight and subtlety.
Inspired by the true story of Danish painter Einar Wegener and his California-born wife, this tender portrait of a marriage asks: What do you do when someone you love wants to change? It starts with a question, a simple favor asked of a husband by his wife on an afternoon chilled by the Baltic wind while both are painting in their studio. Her portrait model has canceled, and would he mind slipping into a pair of women’s shoes and stockings for a few moments so she can finish the painting on time. “Of course,” he answers. “Anything at all.” With that, one of the most passionate and unusual love stories of the twentieth century begins.
With the stacked cast and intriguing story involved here, The Danish Girl is certainly a film to keep an eye on. No release date has been announced, though that’s sure to be coming soon.