Deadline Hollywood reported this week that HBO has approved an original movie about the relationship between Ernest Hemingway and the war correspondent Martha Gellhorn, titled Hemingway and Gellhorn.
According to the article, James Gandolfini, the producer, has been trying to get this film made for six years. Now it has a green light, and two major stars attached to it: Clive Owen (pictured, via, doing his best impression of the famously drunk writer) and Nicole Kidman.
Here is Deadline’s scene-setting summary of what the film will likely cover: “In 1936, Ernest Hemingway was already a legend when he met Gellhorn, a novelist and one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th Century, in a local bar in Key West. Their tumultuous romance and subsequent 5-year marriage took them to the Spanish Civil War as Gellhorn stood toe-to-toe with the literary master, putting his famous bravado and iconic style to the test. Gellhorn’s competitive nature inspired the novelist to pen one of its most famous novels, For Whom the Bell Tolls.”
Philip Kaufman will direct the movie; Barbara Turner and Jerry Stahl will write the script. Filming starts next year. Backlash over the choice of actor can begin now.