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EXCLUSIVE: It took James Gandolfini 6 years to get the story of Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn to the screen. Now HBO has just given the green light to Hemingway & Gellhorn, 
an original movie produced by Gandolfini, who first was attached to star in the project in 2004 when it was envisioned as a feature. He then brought Hemingway to HBO through his Attaboy production banner, which has been based at the pay cable network since 2006. It was worth the wait now that it stars Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman as one of American literature’s most famous couples. Philip Kaufman will direct from a script by Barbara Turner and Jerry Stahl. Filming is slated for next year in Northern California. Gandolfini will executive produce with his producing partner at Attaboy, Alex Ryan, as well as Turner, Philip Kaufman and Peter Kaufman. Gandolfini’s managers Nancy Sanders and Mark Armstrong will serve as co-executive producers and Trish Hofmann as producer.
In 1936, Ernest Hemingway was already a legend when he met Gellhorn, a novelist and one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th Century, in a local bar in Key West. Their tumultuous romance and subsequent 5-year marriage took them to the Spanish Civil War as Gellhorn stood toe-to-toe with the literary master, putting his famous bravado and iconic style to the test. Gellhorn’s competitive nature inspired the novelist to pen one of its most famous novels, For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Hemingway & Gellhorn follows a development path similar to another biopic, Grey Gardens, which also started off as a feature and went through a long gestation period before finding its way to HBO with big-screen stars Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore onboard. It went on to become last year’s most lauded TV movie. HBO’s other recent high-profile original films include You Don’t Know Jack starring Al Pacino, Temple Grandin starring Claire Danes, The Special Relationship starring Dennis Quaid and the upcoming Cinema Verite staring Diane Lane, Tim Robbins and Gandolfini. It also is filming the five-hour miniseries Mildred Pierce starring Kate Winslet and Guy Pearce.
Gandolfini’s has been one of two projects about Gellhorn developed in the past few years. In 2008, Gillian Anderson’s company acquired Caroline Moorehead’s biography Gellhorn: A Twentieth-Century Life and hired Sharman Macdonald to write a feature adaptation for Anderson to star as the trailblazing war correspondent.
Kidman recently finished shooting comedy Just Go with It opposite Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston and will next star in Rabbit Hole. Owen is currently filming The Killer Elite and will begin production on Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s Intruders this summer.
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It’s the Keith Urban “skeptics”. They found the link and they take any chance they get to attack Nicole. They’re sick obsessed fans of Keith Urban. Don’t let the multiple usernames fool you. It’s the same handful of nutty women on the internet 24/7.
Paranoid much? The descriptions of Kidman as cold and sexless are opinions that have been widely held for some time now hence her inability to bring in big box office numbers or any awards. i don’t think these skeptics are people who want to get into keith urban’s pants, i think they are people who don’t want to see a love story as unique and extraordinary as Gelhorn’s and Hemingways be ruined by Kidman’s performance.
Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman are box office gold; can’t see how this one misses. Also when I think of Ernest Hemingway I think of an effete Englishman, either that or a large Italian man from Jersey, either one is fine by me.
I find myself thinking about a large Italian man from Jersey every single day…and his initials just happen to be J.G. – the sexiest bear alive! WOOF.
So how many people saw ‘Australia’ again? Box office credibility, maybe; box office gold, not-so-much.
It’s great that James G. finally got a green light on this. When it was first announced years ago, I could see him playing Hemingway although in reality Hemingway was much slimmer. When He met Martha He was still in his 30′s and was a very handsome dude. Unfortunately Martha does look more like Cate Blanchett than Nicole Kidman, but we will just have to pray that we don’t get a miscast like Sandra Bullock in “Hemingway, In Love and War”. Clive Owen, if he puts on a little weight (Hemingway weighed around 190 to 200 lbs. on a 6 foot frame) could possibly pass for Hemingway. BTW, Martha Gelhorn was not a famous war correspondent when she met Hemingway in Key West. She was there on a trip with her mother with designs to meet him, which she did at his favorite hangout, Sloppy Joe’s. She became a famous correspondent later during the Spanish Civil War, where she and Hemingway shacked up together. They were a great match, they loved to hunt and fish together and she was a “looker” as well. The reason they broke up is because, in essence Hemingway did not like a “strong” women, who called him out on all of his flaws and shenanigans.
Her story IS fascinating, let’s all hope that these folks can do justice to her legacy.
Clive is a decent actor but not as Hemingway. Kidman is vapid and will completely ruin the film as she has so many others. I can no longer stomach watching Kidman in any movie. GA sounds like an excellent choice. She has the right stuff!
So typical!!!Shame on you!Why put down NK to make your starlett look good?!?
How about Jeff Bridges and Cate Blanchett? I love Clive Owen but not as Hemingway.
This constant Nicole Kidman-hating is getting really ridiculous. She is one of the best, bravest, most versatile actresses out there with several outstanding, critically acclaimed performances under her belt (Billy Bathgate, To Die For, The Others, Moulin Rouge!, The Hours, Birth, Dogville, The Human Stain etc.). The wonderful thing about her is the fact that even if the film gets panned by critics (The Human Stain, Birth etc.) she is still capable of getting raves for her performance and THAT is something only a very few actresses can pull off today (Michelle Pfeiffer, Meryl Streep).
I agree that she should opt for a more natural look but let’s not pretend that just because she has a strangely perfect complexion, she is suddenly not one of the most gifted actresses out there…because actually she is…by a landslide.
It is hysterical to read the duplicate posts with different names in favor of Kidman!!! You must work for her or you may be the pres of her fan club, whatever, the fact is she has screwed herself by ****ing with her face!!!! She WAS so talented but became too aware of her beauty. She is so attached to it that, she is dysmorphic. Someone earthy and sexy should be in that role. LOVE the Cate Blanchette idea with Jeff Bridges!!! LOVE IT!!! Gritty and natural. Wouldn’t it be great if Kidman surprised us all by going au natural? I mean, she can be fantastic if she gets beyond the need to be so perfect looking.
Sounds very interesting. Though we’d much rather have seen Gillian Anderson, not Nicole Kidman, in the role. Yet with the immensely talented Gandolfini at the helm this is a project I hope to hear much more about. Please keep the coverage coming, Deadline.
Sorry to say, but Scully is dead.
The actress that played her is one of the most terrible in the entire world. Thank God she is gone.
Don´t dare to compare her with the lovely Nicole. I think your attitude is a lack of respect.
Besides, GA has the most bizarre fandom in the world and nobody want work with her. She is one of the most hated person on internet because of her crazy and blind fans.
Nicole is a real actress with soul and heart and work ethnic.
those bic the Gilliam The Arrogant and Greed Anderson are back.
Be careful dear producers. Thos girl are obssessed and rudu.
I hate Gillian the Snobish Anderson.
Wow, some David Duchovny Stans are still being right Bitter Betties, aren’t they.
What does this have to do with David Duchovny? And why would they be bitter?
I don’t follow Clive Owen enough to know how he will do in this role. I’m willing to give him a shot but he’s going to have a hard time playing against the whispering simpering plastic KIdman.Might as well just cast a department store mannequin as KIdman. She whispers her lines and has one expression thamks to her love of botox. And God only knows what she has in her lips but they are so distracting you lose track of what she’s trying to say. She looks like a large mouth bass.
Clive Owen is going to have to put some weight on to play Papa convincingly… I was really looking forward to James Gandolfini playing the author. Gandolfini would have brought Hemingway’s Alpha Male persona (or Alpha Author) to life. Though Hem wouldn’t have been quite as large as the actor (though he was comparatively huge in an era when the average soldier was about 150 pounds), by ALL accounts he was a very formidable physical presence. If Hemingway comes off as a svelte pretty boy this just ain’t gonna work… Gellhorn had REAL problems with the author’s manners, hygiene and often anti-intellectual affect.
Having said all of that, I get the impression that Gandolfini cares for the subject matter and will do it justice.
Back in day, actress Teri Garr (we’re talking the 70s) looked a lot like Gellhorn. There’s a famous picture of the journalist with a cigarette in hand and looking at a manuscript or a magazine… she was a dead ringer for the aforementioned 70s actress. Both actresses mentioned in the above posts (Kidman and Anderson) are a bit too delicate in presence. Maybe some real acting will be brought to the fore. Wait and see.
While the setting of this “love story” is indeed epic, it’s the conflict here that’ll make an interesting story. In a lot of ways the relationship was a trade off rather than genuine love: young wife (Hem’s previous two were older than him) for the ability to rub elbows with the literary elite. That’s not to say both weren’t initially fascinated with each other, but resentments built up fast. The real love story in Hem’s life was Hadley, his first wife. The regret he must’ve felt—in later years—for giving up a woman who cared for him when he was merely passionate and penniless must’ve been profound.
In short, there’s danger here of things getting a bit too glammed up to be an authentic telling of the story at hand, but Hem’s life has a bunch of interesting chapters that need to be filmed; it ain’t like the well will run dry or be ruined if this doesn’t cut it.
Casting Jeff Bridges and Cate Blanchett would have been inspired. Excellent choices. Clive is too British and Kidman is too boring and bland. Thie film will be dull as hell. I like Clive but is a reserved actor. I will skip this film, just like I do anything Kidman is in.
Gillian Anderson is a lot better actress than Kidman. I hope we have a chance to see her own project.
When was Gillian Anderson’s last hit movie? NEVER! Nicole leaves her in the dust. She is a has-been from the XF days.
Kidman isnt the best choice but better than some. I like the idea of Cate Blanchett. From what I’ve seen Anderson’s American accent is all over the place and she’s no where near the class of actress of Kidman or Blanchett more of a character actress from what I’ve seen.
Because it’s usually Duchovny fans who try to cause a stir when it comes to Anderson. Ask yourself, who would be most knowledgeable about her “crazy and blind” fans? Not regular Nicole Kidman fans, but X Files fans or Duchovny fans. A lot of them resent her and it goes way back to the days of the show when it was reported that she and Duchovny despised eachother, and she kept winning awards and getting praise for her acting and he was ignored. Do you some research and you’ll see what I’m getting at.
Sister, you are being rude here. I know you are angry because DD moved on -Californication anyone? and his ex-co star is anywhere to be seen, but this is not DD fault.
Besides, the subject here is Nicole Kidman. I understand that you are trying attrack attention for Mrs.Anderson, but, I think attacking other fanbase besides NK’fans is really the wrong move.
Jesus, what kind of fans are you!? Shame on you!
Kudos to HBO, Nicole and James for bring together so many talents.
Gillian would be much better. I’ve never seen a more heart breaking performance than Gillian as Lily Bart.
Geez people, relax. Kidman won an Oscar for playing opposite of type. She has had several criticallty acclaimed performances. Her choice of films has been spotty but she can act. Dead Calm is one of my favorite films. It looks like someone nailed it about the anti NK coming from her husband’s obsessed fans. Where anyone gets GA is beyond me. That woman never moves her mouth when she murmurs bland lines. She is way too stoic for me. I think Kidman will put another fantastic performance in this piece.
More chick flicks from gals now running hbo. Owens sexier than gandolfini. Sorry James. When this started sopranos was a force. Not now. Only English accents now featured in hbo mow style films. Next up: gang of 4. A look at mao’s wife. And mrs. Stalin: dame of death?