Gillian Anderson Goes to War…in Martha Gellhorn Biopic

Gillian Anderson, doing her part for X-Files 2 publicity.  

Martha Gellhorn may not be a familiar name to many of you, and in some ways that’s surprising, because she led an adventurous life. As a war correspondent, she covered the Spanis Civil War, World War II, and even Vietnam. Somewhere along the way she managed to squeeze in a stint as Mrs. Ernest Hemingway (as wife #3, the marriage lasted five years, and to be honest, neither seemed to enjoy it very much). I’m lucky to be familiar with her story only because I read about her while research a number of  World War II projects.

Well, now Variety says that Gillian Anderson has bought the rights to Caroline Moorehead’s 2004 biography of Gellhorn for her Fiddlehead Productions. Sharman Macdonald will adapt.

Anderson, of course, will be next seen in the long-awaited X-Files sequel, opening at the end of this month. That’s her first big movie in a while; since the X-Files TV series ended, she’s mostly been working in British TV and stage productions. Next up for her is a production of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House in London. Congratulations on that–you know you’ve got pull in theater when you can say, “I want to play Nora in A Doll’s House” and get that up and running. But maybe doing the X-Files will rekindle her interest in doing some movies, too.