Working Title Films’ The Danish Girl, directed by Academy Award winner Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech, Les Misérables) and starring Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything, Les Misérables) and Alicia Vikander (A Royal Affair, Anna Karenina), will be released domestically by Focus Features in exclusive engagements in New York and Los Angeles beginning Friday, November 27, 2015, and by Universal Pictures International overseas. Focus CEO Peter Schlessel made the announcement today.
The Danish Girl is the remarkable love story inspired by the lives of artists Einar and Gerda Wegener (being portrayed, respectively, by Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander), whose marriage and work are cast into the unknown when Einar begins a groundbreaking journey to become one of the world’s first transgender women, Lili Elbe. The Danish Girl has been adapted into a screenplay by BAFTA Award nominee Lucinda Coxon, based on the novel of the same name by David Ebershoff. The film’s cast also includes Matthias Schoenaerts (The Drop), Ben Whishaw (Skyfall), and Amber Heard (The Rum Diary). The film’s producers are Gail Mutrux (Kinsey) through her Pretty Pictures production company, Anne Harrison (Two Family House) through her Harrison Productions, Working Title co-chairs Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, and Tom Hooper. Linda Reisman is executive-producing The Danish Girl with Ulf Israel of Senator Global Productions.
Schlessel commented, “In the tradition of Focus’ history of epic and moving love stories, The Danish Girl promises to be unforgettable. Tom Hooper is an extraordinary storyteller who always elicits beautiful performances from his actors. We are so pleased to be working with Eddie Redmayne again after our shared success with Working Title on The Theory of Everything.”
Working Title’s The Theory of Everything, for which Redmayne last month won the Best Actor Academy Award and which last month won three BAFTA Awards including Best Actor, was released by Focus domestically in November 2014 and subsequently by Universal Pictures International overseas. The movie was nominated for four additional Academy Awards including Best Picture, and has grossed over $100 million worldwide.
Universal and Working Title’s Les Misérables, for which Hooper was a Directors Guild of America Award nominee and in which Redmayne co-starred, won three Academy Awards including Best Supporting Actress (Anne Hathaway) and was nominated for five more including Best Picture. Hooper won the DGA Award and the Academy Award as Best Director for The King’s Speech, which won three more Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor (Colin Firth), and was nominated for eight additional Academy Awards.
