After completing last year’s celebrated gay romance film, God’s Own Country, director Francis Lee is looking to continue his work in queer cinema, now with some big names. Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan have signed on as leads in his next historical romance-drama.
Ammonite, set in a English seaside town in the 1840s, will follow the developing relationship between renowned paleontologist, Mary Anning, and a London woman to whom she must serve as nursemaid. Anning was known for making major fossil discoveries in the English Channel and struggled throughout her career against the male-dominated scientific circles in the UK.
Lee will be writing the script as well as directing, working alongside producer duo Iain Canning and Emile Sherman (Lion, Widows) with support from producer Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly (Lady Macbeth). BBC, BFI, and See-saw will be developing the film with a estimated shoot date of March 2019.
With God’s Own Country wooing audiences across the festival circuit and winning awards from Sundance, the British Independent Film Awards, and a plethora of worldwide film festivals, Ammonite is looking to be a highly anticipated film of 2020 that may establish Lee as a major player in the international film industry.
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