Carla Gugino is set to play Hollywood legend Vivien Leigh in the upcoming biopic The Florist, Variety reported exclusively.
Nick Sandow is attached to direct the film. Jayce Bartok will write the script based on a box of love letters.
The story follows Leigh’s struggle with bipolar disorder, which was first diagnosed in the ’40s, in the midst of preparing to take on the lead role in John Gielgud’s Broadway production of Chekhov’s Ivanov.
Leigh was a British actress who won two Academy Awards for Best Actress: as Scarlett O’Hara in 1939’s Gone with the Wind and as Blanche DuBois in the 1951 film adaptation of Tennessee William’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, A Streetcar Named Desire, opposite Marlon Brando. She also played the same role on stage in 1949 in London’s West End. The actress also won a Tony Award in the 1963 Broadway musical adaptation of Tovarich.
Carla Gugino plays Vivien Leigh
“I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity to excavate a woman as complex, contradictory, and compelling as Vivien. From the moment I read the script, I knew ‘The Florist’ was a journey I had to pursue,” Gugino said.
The biopic is set to start production by the end of summer in Philadelphia. Leigh bumps into Joseph Penn, a World War II veteran and florist. This happens the same time as the actress attends a psychiatric clinic for electroconvulsive therapy. The synopsis describes the plot as, “Amidst the backdrop of madness, Leigh and Penn become each other’s sources of truth, beauty, and love.”
Spoiler alert, she doesn’t marry Penn. Leigh would go on to marry Sir Laurence Olivier in 1940. They divorced in 1960.
Gugino was recently seen in the HBO/Max series The Girls on the Bus. Her role as Verna in the 2023 Netflix series The Fall of the House of Usher propelled her back into the limelight. She also previously starred in The Haunting of Bly Manor, Californication and the beloved Spy Kids’ movie franchise, which has been making a resurgence on social media.
Lauren Hale-Rieckhoff will produce the film with Vinyl Foote Productions. The other leads and supporting players will be announced soon.
Sandow said, “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.”
“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,” he continued.
