As word of unrest continues to plague the production of Madonna’s romantic drama “W.E.,” here’s our first look at Abbie Cornish in her leading role as Wally Winthrop, the contemporary protagonist of the dual narrative tale.
Roger Friedman is hearing that “the crew turnover is constant,” and that “the movie may be brilliant, but it’s unlikely anyone working on it will to live to see it finished” with problems apparently stemming from Madonna “micro managing everything. Everything has to be approved by her. Everything.”
The news is hardly surprising given that Oscar-winning producer David Parfitt (“Shakespeare In Love”) and casting director Nina Gold left the project shrouded in similar controversies last April. That said, shooting looks to be going strong now moving to Paris, where this look at Cornish’s new style is from.
“W.E.” tells the parallel stories of the affair between King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson which led to the royal’s abdication, and the contemporary story of a woman, Wally Winthrop, with romantic problems of her own, in addition to an obsession with the life of the Duchess of Windsor. As Friedman puts it, “Madonna and Alek Keshishian have written the Windsor story as if it were ‘Wally and Wallis’ — as in ‘Julie and Julia.'”
Oscar Isaac, Andrea Riseborough and James D’Arcy fill the three other significant roles in the currently-shooting film.