In September of 2017, US cinemas were finally blessed with the much-delayed Tulip Fever, a starry slice of historical Oscar-bait stuck in development hell for over a decade, and left collecting dust on the shelf since production ended in the summer of 2014.

Produced by Harvey Weinstein, then a declining giant of Hollywood moviemaking, Tulip Fever had long been regarded as something of an industry joke, and potentially the curtain call for Weinstein himself.

A month later, amid a flurry of sexual misconduct allegations against Weinstein that would galvanise much of the world, Tulip Fever, and the damage many thought it could do to the Weinstein brand, was very much a distant memory. But somewhat inexplicably, over four years since production ended, Tulip Fever is finally washing up on UK shores, with a contractually-obligated release in British cinemas this week.

Adapted from a 2000 novel by Deborah Moggach, Tulip Fever is set against the backdrop of the curious tulip mania of 17th Century Amsterdam, in which prices of the newly discovered flower skyrocketed before dramatically crashing.

Alicia Vikander, cast amid a flurry of press declaring her “the next big thing”, is the film’s lead, playing a sad orphan forcibly married to a Dutch magnate (perennial Oscar magnet Christoph Waltz) who embarks on an affair with the artist commissioned to paint her portrait (Dane DeHaan, then a promising up-and-comer, and now the actor whose lack of star power sunk both A Cure for Wellness and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets last year).