WEST WYCOMBE, England – ‘s coming back to life on screen, with a 21st-century behind-the-scenes drama thrown in.
“Effie,” which features 17-year-old Dakota Fanning in one of her first adult roles, tells the story of the disastrous marriage between 19th-century art critic John Ruskin and his young bride Effie Gray. It was a train wreck of a union, a collision of opposites that ended after Effie fell truly, madly, scandalously in love with wild-eyed young artist John Everett Millais.
“It’s the ultimate bad marriage,” said Emma Thompson, the Academy Award winning actress and writer behind “Effie”`s screenplay.
She said she was drawn to the story by its “archetypal quality.”
“It happens to be a costume drama, but you could be doing a story with this kind of complexity and oddness in any period,” Thompson said on the set of “Effie” at West Wycombe House, an exuberantly ornate 18th-century mansion in the Chiltern Hills northwest of London.
She’s not alone in seeing the story’s potential. Two writers have come forward to accuse Thompson of copying their work, claims she and her producers deny.
Playwright Gregory Murphy alleges similarities with his play and screenplay “The Countess.” He has claimed that “Effie” is
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