Margot Robbie and Domhnall Gleeson – the adorable almost-couple from your favourite romcom of recent years About Time – are teaming up once more.
The film is Goodbye Christopher Robin, the long-awaited biopic of A.A Milne, creator of the beloved Winnie the Pooh stories, Deadline reports. Gleeson, 33, a bumbling Irishman of the Hugh Grant, Colin Firth-esque variety, will play the author, while Robbie will take on the role of Daphne, his first wife and mother to Christopher Robin Milne, their son and the inspiration for the series.
Like all good biopics, there’s the perfect mix of nostalgia, romance, history, familiarity and drama in this story, which will follow the Milnes from the moment of Winnie the Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore’s creation through the burgeoning global success of the books and the side effects that fame like this can bring.
The real-life Christopher Robin was haunted by the spectre of his literary incarnation, and said that his father’s stories “brought me over the years more toe-curling, fist-clenching, lip-biting embarrassment than any other.”
At the time of his father’s death in 1956, Robin was estranged from his parents, and he never saw his widowed mother in the 15 years that she outlived her husband. He was, however, very close to his nanny Olive Rand. “For over eight years, apart from her fortnight’s holiday every September, we had not been out of each other’s sight for more than a few hours at a time,” Robin has said of her.
Talk about a cracker of a plot! It’s safe to say we’re already excited for this film, which will be directed by Simon Curtis, who nailed the biopic thing with his most recent flick My Week With Marilyn.
“We are assembling a wonderful cast, headed by two actors I am longing to work with – Domhnall Gleeson and Margot Robbie,” Curtis said in a press release.
Two major Hollywood stars, a beloved literary character and a period setting? Sounds like this film could be heading straight for Awards Season, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Watch this space.
