Emma Corrin’s portrayal of the beloved Princess Diana and her uncanny resemblance to Lady Di in the Crown enthralled viewers. While she will be replaced by Elizabeth Debicki for the fifth season of the show, we will not have to wait too long before we see her on the streaming platform once again. From playing one rule-breaking renegade, she will be moving on to another. Only this time, instead of Buckingham Palace, it will be a country estate for her.

Netflix seems to have tapped the right nerve with its successful period dramas. And Sony’s 3000 Pictures have teamed up with Netflix to produce an adaptation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and Emma Corrin is playing Lady Chatterley! This will be the Golden Globe-winning, Emmy-nominated actor’s film debut in a leading role. It will also be the first film produced under the new Sony-Netflix partnership.

Everything We Know About the Story

emma-corrin-CROWN
NETFLIX

DH Lawrence first published Lady Chatterley’s Lover privately in 1928. In 1960, 30 years after Lawrence’s death, Penguin Books faced a legal obscenity trial for publishing the novel. The acquittal of the publishing house was a symbolic victory that was a step towards a far more liberal Britain when it came to freedom of the written word. Due to its explicit content, such as explorations of desire outside of the traditional confines of marriage and strict heteronormativity, the book was considered scandalous for its time.

Related: Every Actress Who Has Played Princess Diana

The story is about Constance Reid (Lady Chatterley), who finds herself in a marriage devoid of love or passion. She eventually gets intimate with the gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors. It is a common misconception that Lady Chatterley’s Lover got censored repeatedly for so many years simply because of its so-called vulgarity. The book also had political inclinations in its text that went against the norms when Lawrence wrote it.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover delved into the subject of emotional and physical compatibility of partners, especially a woman’s sexual agency, at a time when women had just received the right to vote. The novel also carried a commentary on early-20th-century Britain, the hierarchies of its society, and how industrialization deepened the divide. Mellors belonged to the working class, while Lady Chatterley, born to a life of wealth and privilege, was married to the upper-class Baronet, Sir Clifford Chatterley. Clifford’s character gets paralysed from the waist down because of a Great War injury which further puts a wedge in their already emotionally-strained marriage. This highlighted the class disparity of the very real world these fictional characters inhabited.

This isn’t the first time the novel has been adapted to screen. The latest version came out in 2015 as a BBC television film starring Holliday Grainger, Richard Madden, and James Norton. The Game of Thrones actor Madden portrayed the role of Mellors while Grainger played Lady Chatterley, and Norton portrayed Clifford Chatterley. The Netflix adaptation will be a retelling of this classic from a female gaze.

Everything We Know About the Cast & Crew

Jack O'Connell
BBC

English actor Jack O'Connell will be joining Corrin as Oliver Mellors. O’Connell has starred in TV shows and films like Skins, Starred Up, Unbroken, ‘71, and Money Monster. He recently wrapped up filming for the BBC’s SAS: Rogue Heroes. This six-part drama is based on Ben Macintyre’s book of the same name, tracing the formation of the Special Forces unit.

Matthew Duckett, who previously acted in the BAFTA-nominated A Confession (starring Martin Freeman) for ITV and Doctors for BBC, has been cast as Clifford Chatterley. Duckett has also appeared in the leading role of Chris in My Left/Right Foot – The Musical at The National Theatre of Scotland and as Loyal in The Royal National Theatre’s production of Tartuffe.

French filmmaker Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre is directing this adaptation that Netflix promises to be every bit as steamy as Bridgerton. Clermont-Tonnerre’s debut feature film, The Mustang, opened to critical acclaim in 2019.

Related: Bridgerton Season 2: How the Women Reclaim Agency in a Patriarchal World

Multiple Academy Award nominee David Magee was roped in to adapt the novel into a screenplay. Apart from writing for celebrated films like Finding Neverland, Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, and Life of Pi, Magee is also responsible for the script of The School For Good And Evil, which is slated for release on Netflix this year.

Academy Award nominees Laurence Mark, Pete Czernin, and Graham Broadbent of Blueprint Pictures are producing. Marisa Paiva and Nikki Cooper are the executives overseeing the project on behalf of 3000 Pictures.

Release Date & Everything Else We Know

Emma Corrin filming Lady Chatterley's Lover today in North Wales, September 13 pic.twitter.com/qw3GDLq9Hq

— emma corrin source (@corrinsource) September 13, 2021

Lady Chatterley’s Lover is currently in post-production. Shooting commenced in Northern Wales in the fall of 2021. Some scenes have reportedly been shot around the iconic Lake Vyrnwy. Corrin was spotted shooting in multiple locations with a prosthetic baby bump. Her character, Constance, conceives a child after her affair with the gamekeeper and even chooses to tell her husband Clifford instead of hiding it – that can be seen as an act of reclaiming power and control.

While Netflix and Sony haven’t set an official date for Lady Chatterley’s Lover, it is expected to be released later this year.