There aren’t a whole lot of LGBTQ films in the studio system, and that’s reflective of the lack of queer representation in Hollywood — both in character and in casting queer actors. The ones that do get wide releases are often used to garner Oscar attention. There are the rare stories like Carol, a beautiful film from Todd Haynes that earned Cate Blanchett a Best Actress nomination, and The Danish Girl, which earned Alicia Vikander her first statuette. So when I hear of something like Disobedience, I’m praying that it’ll be the latter (i.e. not purely Oscar bait).

According to Variety, it’ll be a tale of two Rachels: Rachel McAdams and Rachel Weisz will co-star in the film based on the novel by Naomi Alderman. It’s the story of Ronit Krushka, a 32-year-old woman who returns to her Orthodox Jewish home when she learns her father has died. She then upsets the community when she rekindles a past love for her best friend, who is now married to her cousin. Weisz will play Ronit and McAdams will play her friend, though Weisz is also aboard to produce the film with Ed Guiney and Frida Torresblanco.

What this film has going for it are these two ladies. Long after her Mean Girl days, McAdams is packing some heat with her roles in True Detective season 2 and Marvel’s Doctor Strange, as well as her role in last year’s Oscar-winning film Spotlight. Weisz too has mainstream clout, but she’s been most impressive in the smaller works, like Youth and The Lobster.

Rebecca Lenkiewicz, who wrote the screenplay for this year’s Foreign Film Oscar Ida, co-wrote the film adaptation with its director Sebastian Lelio. Production is eyeing an early 2017 start, and perhaps we’ll see this come awards season at the end of the year.

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Image via Sundance
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Image via HBO