She will star opposite Eddie Redmayne as Einar Wegener/Lili Elbe, an artist who was among the first to ever undergo sexual reassignment surgery. Alicia Vikander will play his wife Gerda Wegener, while Heard is being courted for the role of Oola. Hooper will work from a script by Lucinda Coxon, adapting the 2001 novel by David Ebershoff.
The book is officially described as follows: Inspired by the true story of Danish painter Einar Wegener and his 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.
Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner will produce alongside Hooper and Pretty Pictures’ Gail Mutrux, Anne Harrison and Linda Reisman.
Heard has the lead female role in the upcoming Channing Tatum-led sequel Magic Mike XXL, as well as headlining The Adderall Diaries and co-starring with Johnny Depp in London Fields.
(Photo Credit: WENN)
