Shutterstock

EXCLUSIVE: Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan are attached to star in romance-drama Ammonite from God’s Own Country writer-director Francis Lee. Talk about prestige casting.

Widows and Lion producers Iain Canning and Emile Sherman will produce the film alongside Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly (Lady Macbeth). The pic, which instantly becomes one of the hottest projects in the works out of the UK, was developed by See-Saw, the BFI and BBC Films.

Set in a UK coastal town in the 1840s, the drama will follow the unlikely romance between palaeontologist Mary Anning and a London woman of means to whom she must unexpectedly play nursemaid. Production is due to start in March.

Lee’s Sundance darling God’s Own Country, about the romance between two young male farmhands, was a critical hit and a box office breakout in the UK. The festival favorite picked up a slew of awards and also was BAFTA-nominated.

Oscar winner Winslet is in post on Avatar 2 and is filming the drama Blackbird. Three-time Oscar nominee Ronan is onscreen with Margot Robbie in Working Title and Universal’s Mary Queen of Scots.