Based on David Ebershoff's novel, The Danish Girl is the story of the world's first post-operative transsexual,
Einar Wegener, and his wife,
Greta. Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In) is set to direct,
Nicole Kidman has long been attached to play Einar, and Variety reports that
Gwyneth Paltrow has stepped in to play Greta. She's stepping in for
Charlize Theron, who originally held the role, but has dropped out for unspecified reasons.
The story takes place in 1920s Denmark. Greta was a portrait painter, and needed a model. She asked Einar to step into a dress, stockings, and heels, and created some kind of awakening in Einar. In women's clothes, her husband became an outrageous character named Lili. The paintings of Lili became extremely popular, few realizing a man had stood in for them. Lili than took on a public life of her own, and Greta often introduced Lili as her sister. Eventually, Einar / Lili decided to commit to gender reassignment surgery, a dangerous and experimental procedure at the time. Greta stood beside her husband until his transformation was complete, and then their marriage was declared null and void by the King of Denmark.
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