Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan to Play Lovers in Movie Inspired by Real-Life Fossil Hunter
Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan have been tapped to star in Ammonite, an unlikely love story inspired by the real-life fossil hunter Mary Anning.
Winslet, 43, and Ronan, 24, will take on the story of Anning, a fossil collector and paleontologist credited with making important discoveries in Jurassic marine fossil beds in the cliffs along the English Channel. The movie will be directed by Francis Lee, who gained critical acclaim for his 2017 drama God’s Own Country about a romance between two male farmhands.
Set at an English coastal town in the 1820, the movie will follow as Anning (Winslet) and a wealthy woman from London struggling with health issues (Ronan) develop an intense relationship that affects their lives, according to Deadline and Variety. The movie is set to start filming in March.
This is the first time Ronan and Winslet will star in a movie together, though neither are strangers to period pieces.
Ronan is currently starring in Mary Queen of Scots and is in production on a Little Women remake also starring Emma Watson and Timothée Chalamet. She’s also previously gained critical acclaim and award nominations for her roles in Atonement and Brooklyn, both of which earner her Oscar nominations.
Winslet made her mark in Hollywood with the 1912-set Titanic and later starred in period pieces like Sense and Sensibility, Revolutionary Road and The Reader, for which she won a Best Actress Oscar.
