The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Eva Green (Miss Peregine’s Home for Peculiar Children) and Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace) are to star in Vita & Virginia, an upcoming drama centered on an a two decade long affair between renowned modernist author Virginia Woolf and poet Vita Sackville-West. Green will portray Woolf, and Arterton will fill the role of Sackville-West

The film is to be adapted from a play holding the same name, in which actress and playwright Eileen Atkins pieces together a narrative based solely upon the couple’s written correspondence. Atkins will also be the one to adapt the play for the big screen, which could prove to be slightly disconcerting. In the play, Woolf, who’s played by Atkins, and Sackville-West, played by Vanessa Redgrave, alternate their communication between long monologues and direct interaction. It’s been said that this makes for a sluggish two and a half hours.

Obviously major changes need to take place in order to have the play’s content translate to screen. Perhaps Chanya Button (Burn Burn Burn), who is set to direct, will be the right woman to breathe some life into Vita & Virginia. When considering the superficial appearance of Woolf and Sackville-West, the casting alone is indicative of a more commercial approach in the adaptation of the play.

Green is currently filming Roman Polanski’s Based on a True Story and Arterton can soon be seen in Lone Scherfig’s Their Finest.