Veteran English actress Vanessa Redgrave (Letters to Juliet) – nominated six times and winner of the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for 1977’s Julia – has joined the cast of Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool. The drama stars Jamie Bell (Snowpiercer) and four-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening (Rules Don’t Apply) in a May-December romance between a young British actor and a famous Hollywood actress, based on Peter Turner’s memoir of his passionate relationship with legendary actress Gloria Grahame. Grahame was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer and Turner took her in to his eccentric family home in Liverpool to care for her.

Also in the cast are two-time Oscar nominee Julie Walters (Brooklyn), Kenneth Cranham (Maleficent), Stephen Graham (HBO’s Boardwalk Empire), Frances Barber (Mr. Holmes) and Leanne Best (Line of Duty). At the helm will be Paul McGuigan, who directed several episodes of BBC’s award-winning Sherlock. Matt Greenhalgh (Control) penned the screenplay. Producers are Barbara Broccoli of James Bond fame and Colin Vaines. Lionsgate will release the feature in the U.K. next year.

Redgrave has starred on stage and screen, and has appeared in more than 80 films. She was recently seen on the big screen in Foxcatcher and on television in Black Box and The Go-Between. She has conmpletd filming on Jim Sheridan’s drama The Secret Scripture.

Principal photography begins this week at Pinewood Studios and on location in London and Liverpool.