Ellen Page in lesbian military drama Lioness
Cinematographer turned director Reed Morano will direct Ellen Page in the upcoming biographical film about US lesbian and Marine Lance Corporal Leslie Martz and her deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan
American cinematographer turned director Reed Morano has been named as the director of the upcoming Ellen Page movie Lioness.
Lioness will tell the true story of US Marines Lance Corporal Leslie Martz and her deployment to Iraq, and Afghanistan where she gathered intelligence about Taliban rebels by befriending their wives.
Martz was appointed to lead a Female Engagement Team during her Afghan deployment which aimed to foster women’s rights in the country and build bridges between US military personnel and Afghanistan’s women and girls.
However Martz was in the closet to her bosses to avoid being fired under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and began to find herself torn between her desire to impress her superiors while remaining loyal to the Afghan woman and children she had come to see as friends.
Morano has not directed a major LGBTI themed film before. However she has worked on a number of similarly themed films in recent years as cinematographer including 2013’s Kill Your Darlings, starring Daniel Radcliffe as beat poet Allen Ginsberg, and 2014’s The Skeleton Twins, starring Bill Hader as the gay half of a brother and sister pair of twins.
Page, who is openly lesbian, also portrayed a woman in a same-sex relationship in this year’s film Freeheld which tells the true story of New Jersey police detective Laurel Hester (played by Julianne More) and her battle to have her pension benefits transferred to her domestic partner after she is diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Lioness will begin filming in early 2016.