VARIETY – Embankment Films has sold British rights to Lionsgate U.K. for romantic drama “Summerland,” starring Gemma Arterton and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Variety has been given the exclusive first-look image for the film, which has just wrapped production.

The pic is the feature debut of British playwright Jessica Swale, who won an Olivier Award for her play “Nell Gwynn,” in which Arterton and Mbatha-Raw both starred. Swale won BAFTA’s JJ Screenwriting Bursary for “Summerland” in 2012.

The film centers on fiercely independent writer Alice (Arterton) who “secludes herself in her clifftop study, debunking myths using science to disprove the existence of magic,” according to a statement.

When a spirited young man, Frank, an evacuee from the London Blitz, is placed in her care, “his innocence and curiosity awaken Alice’s buried emotions… perhaps magic really does exist.”

The cast includes Penelope Wilton (“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”) and Tom Courtenay (“45 Years”), as well as rising young actors Lucas Bond (“Slumber”) and Dixie Egerickx (“The Secret Garden”).

The film is produced by Guy Heeley and Adrian Sturges, with Arterton serving as an executive producer alongside Natascha Wharton for the BFI, which helped finance the pic alongside Quickfire Films.

Embankment is handling international sales and co-representing the U.S. with the Gersh Agency.

Zygi Kamasa, CEO of Lionsgate U.K., said: “At Lionsgate we’re constantly looking for projects that nurture both established and rising British talent – and ‘Summerland’ has both of those elements. Jessica is clearly a filmmaker on the rise.” (source)

Last night (October 30) Gemma attended the 2018 Harper’s Bazaar ‘Women of the Year’ Awards – held at the Claridge’s Hotel in London (England) – where she was honored with the Outstanding Performance award:

She may have begun as a Bond Girl, but she has since eschewed stereotypical roles in favour of strong female characters with compelling stories to tell.

Congratulations Gemma! She looked splendid in a Michael Kors gold and silver dress. Several photos from the evening have now been added to the gallery, enjoy!

HARPER’S BAZAAR UK – I am sitting in the basement of a glamorous London hotel chatting to Gemma Arterton over paper cups of tea. She is make-up free in black jeans, a jumper and a pair of ‘ancient old Chelsea boots’, and is mesmerisingly beautiful. We are supposed to be concentrating on her astonishing performance as Tara, a married mother of two in The Escape, a film in which the dialogue was entirely improvised and for which Arterton, also a co-producer, has won Bazaar’s coveted award. But her joie de vivre makes it difficult to remember we are not just there to have fun. And Arterton is fun, whether exclaiming over homemade coffee cake or choosing a deliciously sparkly pair of Jimmy Choos for the upcoming fashion shoot. This is not to imply that she doesn’t take her work seriously; a good word to describe her approach to acting is ‘dedication’. She researches, she reads, she visits locations, she asks questions, she listens. Her interest in everything she takes on, her sincerity and her warmth all inform the intelligence with which she approaches her work.

Although only 32, Arterton is a professional lifetime away from those inevitable post-Quantum of Solace, lace and lipstick offers to play what she describes as ‘sexy girl in this and sexy girl in that’. Over the past decade her roles on both stage and screen read like a cast-list of factual and fictional female stand-outs, a multifaceted pageant from the past, a sequence of the tragic and the triumphant, the misunderstood and the wise. They have included Tess of the d’Urbervilles, the Duchess of Malfi, a Dagenham Ford-worker activist, Joan of Arc and Nell Gwynn. Her gorgeous depiction of Marilyn Monroe’s innocence and knowingness in Sky Arts’ ‘UrbanMyths’ series focused on the 47 takes Monroe needed to say ‘It’s me, Sugar’ in Some Like It Hot. More recently, Arterton has played the poet Vita Sackville-West and a reclusive writer in World War II in Summerland, and will soon take on the enigmatic 1960s singer Dusty Springfield (Arterton loves to sing).

Tuesday (September 11) was the Vita and Virginia day at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. Sadly not much coverage for it so I’m making a post with what I was able to find, hoping more videos and photos will be released in the next few days!

In the gallery I’ve added some instagram photos of Gemma – looking amazing – during the day for the press interviews and photoshoots. The portrait Gemma, Elizabeth Debicki and the director Chanya Button did for E! and few photos from the premiere.

During the premiere Gemma was wearing a Christopher Kane velvet crystal buckle and Le Silla shoes, and looked gourgeous! Stay tuned on our twitter @GArtertonOnline in case of more additions!

TIME OUT LONDON – Gemma Arterton bounds down a hotel corridor, fresh but flustered after lunch. ‘I got lipstick on my dress!’ she exclaims. Mindful of scheduled photoshoots, she playfully adopts poses that conceal the offending marks – and then starts our interview feeling bad about returning a slightly soiled dress to the designer. This is Arterton all over: spirited, funny, professional, thoughtful. She tells me that she was always the performer: both she and her sister Hannah have been acting since they were toddlers in Gravesend. ‘There are videos my mum filmed when we were about four and two years old,’ she says. ‘We were acting out Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. I’m like, “DO IT LIKE THIS! YOU HAVE TO DO IT LIKE THIS!” then she does it and I push her out of the way… God, it’s so bad.’ She gives a guilty giggle. ‘I was like, “Me! Look at me!”’

The world soon looked. After training at Rada, the actress landed a plum role in 2007’s ‘St Trinian’s’ before playing Strawberry Fields in ‘The Quantum of Solace’. Then came a couple of surprising picks, with grimy thriller ‘The Disappearance of Alice Creed’ and countryside romp ‘Tamara Drewe’, before she really hit her stride with ‘Byzantium’ and 2016’s ‘The Girl with All the Gifts’. Her latest, ‘The Escape’, is a largely improvised British drama about a woman who has a breakdown and heads to Paris, leaving her husband (Dominic Cooper) and two children behind. ‘It’s a taboo subject,’ says Arterton. ‘You’ve got to be the perfect wife and the perfect mother and so many marriages break down and the husband leaves. When a woman does it, it’s seen as an awful thing: “What’s wrong with her?”’

Arterton is heartbreaking as the unhappy suburban wife, but filming wasn’t without its challenges. ‘We used real children that live in the house we were shooting in – they weren’t actors. They didn’t really understand what was happening, and they actually didn’t like me,’ she says, and this time she’s not laughing. ‘I found that really difficult. I’d walk into the room and the kids would be like, “Oh God, not her!”’

This comedy short, written and directed by Jessica Swale, takes a sneak peek backstage as the cream of British acting talent step forward to audition for that dream role. They are primed to take on the role of a lifetime, that complex woman, the strong woman, a woman for today. A lady part who is more than just… lady parts.

The eclectic, award-winning cast includes Gemma Arterton, Gemma Chan, Emilia Clarke, Lena Headey, Tom Hiddleston, Felicity Jones, Katie Leung, Stacy Martin, Wunmi Mosaku, Florence Pugh, Catherine Tate and Anthony Welsh.

The hear her campaign aims to give free reign and the opportunity for normally unheard women from across the UK to tell their stories and give their opinions on all matters ‘women’. It aims to elevate these honest and uncensored opinions to make them un-ignorable.

To donate to the Justice and Equality fund, click here

In the gallery screencaps from the video have been added, with all the funny faces Gemma did!

WOMAN’S HOUR Gemma Arterton has starred in films such as St Trinians, Quantum of Solace, Tamara Drewe, Gemma Bovary and Their Finest. She’s also appeared in theatre productions of Saint Joan, Nell Gwyn and the musical Made in Dagenham. She joins Jenni to discuss her new film The Escape, where she plays a stay at home mother – who seemingly has it all – but walks out on her marriage and children.

For the entire interview you should visit che BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour webiste. In our gallery you can find a couple of photos of Gemma taken during the interview, enjoy!