Saoirse Ronan is returning to her period roots with the David Heyman-produced Testament Of Youth. The Atonement actress, who’s lately made a detour into action, has become attached to the adaptation of Vera Brittain’s World War I memoir. The tome, adapted by Calendar Girls’ Juliette Towhidi, traces Brittain’s experiences as a disillusioned nurse during the war and the beginning of her career as a journalist and pacifist. Heyday Films and BBC Films are producing.

Presenting its slate in Cannes today, BBC Films also announced it is reteaming with My Week With Marilyn director Simon Curtis for The Golden Lady. Playwright Alexi Kaye Campbell wrote the script. David Thompson of Origin Pictures is producing. At the center of the film is Maria Altmann, a refugee from Nazi Austria who waged a legal campaign with lawyer Randy Schoenberg to reclaim several world famous Klimt paintings that had been stolen by the Nazis. Among them was his most famous golden portrait of Maria’s aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer.