Jessica Biel has been cast as the lead in the romantic comedy Easy Virtue, based on the Noel Coward play, for London-based Ealing Studios.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Biel plays an American divorcee who travels to the South of France and marries a young Englishman, played by Ben Barnes, on the spur of the moment. The couple return to England to face his family, including his parents, played by Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas.
Stephan Elliott is directing the film from a screenplay he and Sheridan Jobbins wrote. Ealing’s Barnaby Thompson is producing.
Principal photography starts next week in London.
Easy Virtue is based on Coward’s 1924 three-act play of the same name. Alfred Hitchcock was the first to adapt it in film, with the 1928 silent movie Easy Virtue.
