Written by Emma Thompson-her first screenplay since she won the Oscar for Sense And Sensibility, if we all just agree to forget about the two Nanny McPhee movies-the film has boundless compassion for its title character, who’s trapped in a loveless, sexless marriage at a time when women had few tolerable options for correcting such an error. But that’s nothing compared to the hatchet job performed by Effie Gray, a new biopic about Ruskin’s wife. Turner, which portrayed Ruskin (played by Joshua McGuire), the greatest champion of painter J.M.W. Thompson subsequently went to court to prove copyright, a move which eventually resulted in yesterday's ruling.Įffie, written by Thompson and directed by Richard Laxton, is currently listed for UK release in May.John Ruskin may be one of history’s most important, influential art critics, but he’s been taking a real beating at the movies lately. Murphy said he refused the offer on the basis that the money would not have been paid until production began on Thompson's film, effectively barring him from mounting his own version in the meantime. He says the possibility of collaboration was discussed but was subsequently swiftly dismissed by the star's lawyers he alleges he was then offered £10,000 and – later a screenwriting credit. In his Daily Mail article, US playwright Murphy said he met Thompson at her home to try to resolve the matter after discovering the Oscar-winning actor was working on her own screenplay about Effie Gray. On the contrary, there were certain circumstances in her person which completely checked it." "But though her face was beautiful, her person was not formed to excite passion. "It may be thought strange that I could abstain from a woman who to most people was so attractive," he told his lawyer during the annulment proceedings.
The episode gave rise to Ruskin's famous comment on his reasons for failing to consummate the marriage to his young bride. Nevertheless, the annulment caused a great scandal and Effie became persona non grata at the court of Queen Victoria. Millais and Gray went on to marry and she bore him eight children. It was swiftly discovered that Ruskin had never consummated the marriage, and the union was later annulled. Historically, Gray sat for Millais in 1851 after being championed by Ruskin, and the painter and his subject are said to have fallen in love soon afterwards.
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Thompson herself appears as Effie's supporter Lady Eastlake, and the cast list also finds room for Robbie Coltrane as the doctor who confirmed his subject's virginity in court plus Julie Walters. Wise plays Ruskin in Effie, with Dakota Fanning as his virginal teenage wife and Tom Sturridge as Millais.
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Combined with Judge Oetken's earlier decision, these rulings free Effie from all claims of infringement and permit the film of Effie to be released in the near future," said Andrew Deutsch of New York law firm DLA Piper, who represented Thompson and her fellow producers. "We are pleased that Judge Griesa's decision confirms that copyright does not protect history and every author is free to draw from the historical record. The decision, coupled with a ruling by New York district court Judge J Paul Oetken in December against a separate claim of plagiarism by the American writer Eve Pomerance, author of two unfilmed screenplays about the Victorian scandal, means Effie is now able to be released.
Judge Griesa yesterday concluded that the two works have "greatly differing internal structures", and are "quite dissimilar in their two approaches to fictionalising the same historical events". Thompson denied having ever had access to either the play or the screenplay prior to working on Effie and subsequently went to court in an effort to establish copyright so that production on her film would not be stymied. Murphy had claimed in a Daily Mail article in April 2011 that he was considering his legal options after a mutual friend allegedly sent Thompson and her husband Greg Wise a copy of a screenplay for a proposed film based on The Countess. Judge Thomas P Griesa of the southern New York district court ruled the high-profile film, which centres on the story of famed art critic John Ruskin, his wife Effie Gray and Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais, did not infringe on Gregory Murphy's similarly themed 1999 play The Countess, which was performed 634 times in New York and was revived for the London stage in 2005. The Emma Thompson period drama Effie, about one of the Victorian era's most infamous love triangles, is now cleared for release after winning a second copyright case in New York against a US playwright who claimed it was based on his work.
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