Following a prolonged development process, the Emma Thompson-scripted period piece Effie is finally in the can.  Dakota Fanning stars in this biopic of Effie Gray that centers on her doomed marriage to art critic John Ruskin (Greg Wise) in 1840’s London. Despite her beauty, Ruskin didn’t consummate the marriage and the devastated Gray eventually fell in love with Ruskin’s protégé, painter John Everett Milias (Tom Sturridge).  The first images from the film have no landed online, and they give us a look at Fanning in her period garb and Thompson as Lady Eastlake, an art critic and historian who was also one of Effie’s friends.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  Directed by Richard Laxton (Englishman in New York), the film doesn’t yet have a release date but is expected to show up at a few festivals later this year.

It looks like Emma Thompson’s long-in-development biopic Effie is finally gearing up for production. Thompson wrote the original script, which is a biopic of Effie Gray and centers on her doomed marriage to art critic John Ruskin in 1840’s London. Despite her beauty, Ruskin didn’t consummate the marriage and the devastated Gray eventually fell in love with Ruskin’s protégé, painter John Everett Milias. Deadline reports that Dakota Fanning will star in the title role, taking a part that was previously circled by Carey Mulligan and Saorsie Ronan.

Greg Wise (who is Thompson’s husband) will play Ruskin, and it appears that Tom Sturridge (Pirate Radio) will be playing Milias instead of previously mentioned Orlando Bloom. Rounding out the cast is Julie Walters and Derek Jacobi as Ruskin’s parents, Thompson as Lady Eastlake, the woman who takes the suffering Effie under her wing, and Edward Fox is in talks to play Eastlake’s husband. Production is set to begin October 17^th in Scotland, London and Venice. Richard Laxton (An Englishman in New York) is directing.

Actress/Screenwriter Emma Thompson has been working on a biopic of Effie Gray for some time now, and it appears that it’s finally gearing up to go into production.  When we spoke with Carey Mulligan back in March, she told us that she had read the Effie script a while back and was previously attached to the project, but she hadn’t heard anything as of late.  It now appears that Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones) will take on the title role instead.  Production Weekly says that the Thompson-scripted project will also star Orlando Bloom, Greg Wise (Johnny English), Imelda Staunton (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix), and Thompson herself.

Gray was the wife of English art critic John Ruskin, and became entangled in a famous Victorian love triangle that has been adapted into more than a few novels and plays.  Without consummating the relationship, Gray left her husband, had the marriage annulled, and married Ruskin’s protégé John Everett Millius.  Greg Wise (who is also Thompson’s husband) is reported to play Ruskin, with Bloom assumed to be portraying Millius.  Thompson is no stranger to screenwriting, as she won the Academy Award for it with 1995’s Sense and Sensibility.

By now you’ve probably noticed that Steve got an ungodly amount of material from this year’s American Film Market (AFM).  The place where buyers and sellers do business to bring you the films you’ll hopefully be seeing in the near future, AFM has tons of artwork and synopses which are used to promote films but which we will use to bring you news on these films.

Below you’ll find images and synopses for Burke and Hare, Cash, Effie, Main St., The Electric Slide, and The Irishman.  Hit the jump to check them all out.  Also, all the synopses are copied down directly from the original materials with no editorial alterations.  You can read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5 by click on their respective links.