Eddie Redmayne to play first man to undergo sex change
By Nick Levine
Eddie Redmayne is to play the first man to undergo a sex-change operation in a new movie from the director of The King’s Speech.
The actor is to star in a big screen adaptation of David Ebershoff’s 2001 novel The Theory of Everything, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The novel is based on the life story of Danish painter Lili Elbe, who began life as as Einar Wegener before undergoing sex reassignment surgery – which was experimental at the time – in the early 1930s.
The novel focuses on the romantic relationship between Elbe and Gerda Gottlieb, the wife who stood by Elbe though her surgery.
The film will be titled The Danish Girl and has a screenplay by Lucinda Coxon, who previously scripted the BBC’s adaptation of The Crimson Petal and the White. Redmayne will play Einar Wegener/Lili Elbe opposite Felicity Jones as Gerda Gottlieb.
Hooper, who previously worked with Redmayne on Les Miserables, said of the film: “The Danish Girl is an extraordinary love story and a story about finding your true self. I first read Lucinda’s script when I was making The King’s Speech and I was so moved by this true story. I have wanted to make the film ever since.”
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