Naomi Watts will star as ballet legend Margot Fonteyn in Margot & Rudi, the new romantic drama from Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris director Anthony Fabian.
WestEnd Films has boarded world sales on the film, described as "an electrifying true story of ballet legends Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev."
The story follows Fonteyn at 42, the greatest ballerina in the West, sensing her career is ending. She partners with Rudolf Nureyev, a 23-year-old rebellious Soviet defector. Together, they become icons of the Swinging Sixties, though their bond is complicated by her marriage and his affair with another dancer.
Alexandr Trush, principal dancer with the Hamburg Ballet, will portray Nureyev. The cast includes Richard E. Grant, Demián Bichir, and Harriet Walter.
Olivia Hetreed wrote the screenplay. The film shoots in October, produced by Mike Goodridge for Good Chaos, Fabian for Elysian Films, Hetreed for Sympathetic Ink, and Chris Coen.