Carla Gugino Will Star in Biopic About 'Gone With the Wind' Legend Vivien Leigh

Carla Gugino will play Vivien Leigh in the upcoming biopic 'The Florist.'

By Megan Behnke

Carla Gugino is playing a Hollywood icon. Variety reports that The Fall of the House of Usher star will play Gone With the Wind legend Vivien Leigh in the upcoming biopic The Florist. Directed by Orange is the New Black star Nick Sandow, the film "will explore Leigh's struggle with bipolar disorder in the 1960s as she prepares to lead the Broadway production of John Gielgud's Chekhov adaptation of Ivanov." Screenwriter Jayce Bartok was able to create the script just based on a box of love letters.

Leigh is most known for her role as Scarlett O'Hara in the 1939 Oscar-winning film Gone With the Wind. She also starred opposite Marlon Brando in 1951's A Streetcar Named Desire. Other credits include 21 Days, Waterloo Bridge, and The Deep Blue Sea. Her stage credits include Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and Twelfth Night, among many others.

"I couldn't be more excited about the opportunity to excavate a woman as complex, contradictory, and compelling as Vivien," Gugino told Variety. "From the moment I read the script, I knew The Florist was a journey I had to pursue."

The Florist is set to start production towards the end of the summer in Philadelphia. In the film, Leigh will come across WWI veteran Joseph Penn, a blue-collar florist, who is on a delivery. She is also attending a local psychiatric facility for electroconvulsive therapy. According to the synopsis, "Amidst the backdrop of madness, Leigh and Penn become each other's sources of truth, beauty, and love."

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"What drew me to the project was the script and how it brings together, for a fleeting moment, two human beings who seemingly couldn't be more different," Nick Sandow said. "I was excited by taking these two discordant existences and making them touch and seeing what that says about things like love, artistry, mental illness, and celebrity."

Carla Gugino is most known for her credits in the Spy Kids trilogy, Sin City, Night at the Museum, American Gangster, Sucker Punch, Mr. Popper's Penguins, San Andreas, and Gunpowder Milkshake. As of now, more details surrounding The Florist, including who will Joseph Penn, are unknown. Remaining leads and supporting players will reportedly be announced soon, so it shouldn't be long until we find out who will be joining Gugino in the biopic. The Florist is produced by Lauren Hale-Rieckhoff in association with Vinyl Foote Productions, with Jenna Mack co-producing.

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