Isabella Rossellini, Emma Laird and Millicent Simmonds are set to star in “Vermillion,” a period piece set during the last days of the French Revolution to be directed by British director Jon Amiel.
Based on the play by Joel Gross, “Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh,” which first played in New York in 2007, and is inspired by true events, “Vermillion” is set during the turbulence that preceded the French Revolution.
Laird plays Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, a daughter of the lower-middle classes who uses her skills as a portrait painter to hustle her way into the royal court of Versailles. She has an affair with the left-leaning, impoverished Count Alexis de Ligne, a handsome aristocrat who makes his living as a toy-boy for wealthy older women, to get a commission to paint the naive young Queen Marie Antoinette.
Rossellini plays the formidable Madame de Noailles, an old-school aristocrat devoted to Marie Antoinette and haunted by a lost love. Simmonds plays Berthe, Élisabeth’s young servant and frequent muse. “Her portraits will make her as immortal as ‘The Girl With the Pearl Earring,'” says the provided synopsis.
“But each underestimates the subversive power of love,” the synopsis notes. “As the deadly firestorm of the French Revolution erupts and the guillotine looms, all three will come to learn the true meaning of loyalty, friendship and courage.”
Casting is currently underway for the two additional lead roles of Marie Antoinette and Alexis de Ligne.
“Do we really need another movie about Marie Antoinette?” said Jon Amiel in a statement. “I didn’t think so, until I discovered this astonishing and untold tale of her deep friendship with Vigée le Brun.”
“It’s a story in the tradition of ‘”’Tale of Two Cities,’ ‘Dangerous Liaisons'”’ and my own movie ‘Sommersby,’ that explores themes that I’m passionate about — identity, class, loyalty and the subversive power of love,” added Amiel.
“It’s also set against a backdrop of enormous social change, when despots who ruled by decree were ultimately overthrown by an emergent grassroots movement. Period films allow us to hold a mirror to our current world and can remind us that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat its mistakes!” Amiel continued.
“Vermillion” is being lead-produced by Austria’s Katharina Magdalena, alongside Academy Award–winning producer Barrie M. Osborne (“The Lord of the Rings,” “The Matrix”), who is represented by the Gersh Agency.
Also producing “Vermillion” are Stefan Mentz (“The Intern,” “How to Be Single”), Nicholas de Graffenreid (“The Beast Within”) and Jon Mayfield. Executive producers are Rob Cowan (“Aquaman”) and Angus Finney (“Blueberry Inn”). Adrienne McQueen serves as co-producer. They are shopping “Vermillion” in Cannes but have not inked with a sales agent yet.
European co-production partners are Germany’s Odeon Fiction, a Leonine Studios company that is part of the Mediawan Group, represented by Britta Meyermann and Andreas Pfohl; Zephyr Films in the U.K., represented by Chris Curling; and JewelLabs Pictures in Austria, represented by Viktor Perdula.
The plan is to start shooting “Vermillion” in the first quarter of 2027 in Austria, Germany and France pending casting availability.
Laird is repped by United Agents and CAA and managed by Anonymous Content. Rossellini is repped by UTA. Simmonds is managed by Untitled Entertainment.
English (US) ·