Scarlett and Jennifer are both set to play Zelda Fitzgerald in rival films
Why is it that films only ever seem to come in pairs right now? First it was two Jungle Books, now it's two rival films about author and socialite Zelda Fitzgerald.
Right after it was announced that Jennifer Lawrence has been cast as Zelda in Ron Howard's version, we've now found out that Scarlett Johansson will be starring in The Beautiful and the Damned, a rival biopic which focuses more on the relationship between Zelda and her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald.
And just to make things ever more complicated, Christina Ricci will also being playing Zelda in an Z: The Beginning of Everything – an Amazon series out next year.
Looks like the Oscars 2018 could be a complete Zelda showdown...
On 24th October we wrote...
So we all know that talking about money with a partner can be awkward, especially if one of you drastically out earns the other and you’re in the same industry. It’s something which can drive a wedge in any marriage – even one between literary legends like Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Raising the question ‘Can love exist between creative equals?’ is Zelda, a new film set to explore the marriage between jazz age icon Zelda and her Great Gatsby author husband.
And while literature lovers might be excited enough by the prospect of delving deeper into the authors’ relationship, there’s also one more reason you’re going to want to watch it: Jennifer Lawrence is playing the eponymous heroine, Zelda.
The film which will directed by Inferno’s Ron Howard will Nancy Milford’s Pulitzer Prize-shortlisted biography of Zelda as the inspiration for the screenplay.
Trust us, it sounds like quite the story.
Beautiful, creative and talented, Zelda’s husband called her ‘the first American flapper’ and used her as his muse. In fact, it’s believed that Scott immortalised their first meeting by writing it into his novel The Great Gatsby as the moment when the titular Jay meets Daisy Buchanan.
However, the marriage was troubled by Scott’s heavy drinking and Zelda’s struggles with mental illness – she was later diagnosed with schizophrenia and died in a fire at her psychiatric clinic.
During her life, Zelda was determined to achieve success in her own right. Struggling against the confines of a patriarchal society, she wrote a semi-autobiographical novel about a woman who attempts to establish herself independently of her husband. But despite her attempts, she sadly never quite achieved the same level of fame that her husband enjoyed.
And if Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence has anything to do with it, we reckon this might be the film to finally change that.