Dearest, Here Comes a Dusty Springfield Biopic Written and Directed by the Screenwriter of Carol

It’s been a long time since I’ve had the privilege to blog about something Carol-adjacent, so it brings me great pleasure to tell you all that Phyllis Nagy, iconic playwright and screenwriter of the aforementioned 2015 masterpiece, will make her directorial debut with a Dusty Springfield biopic entitled So Much Love. The film, which Nagy also wrote, is set to star Gemma Arterton as Springfield.

Per the Guardian, the film is set in 1968, when Springfield was at her “peak.” An official synopsis reads:

It will follow her as she navigates her way through the politics of the recording studio and the city, and will also explore her encounter with the music of Motown, her stand against apartheid policies during her aborted South African tour and her thorny brushes with men in the music industry.

Of Springfield, whose hits include “I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself” and “Son of a Preacher Man,” Nagy said:

Dusty Springfield has long been a hero of mine—an innovative, brilliant artist and a complex, contradictory woman—I can’t wait to bring her to life on screen… And to collaborate with an artist of Gemma’s caliber—she’s an amazing talent—is a writer/director’s dream come true.

If you’re currently looking at Arterton’s name and thinking, “Who?” allow me to give you some homework: watch Tamara Drewe, Their Finest, and The Escape. And if you don’t know who Dusty Springfield is, I’m sorry, but you’re beyond help.

Fun fact: Nagy was friends with the late Patricia Highsmith (who wrote the novel on which Carol was based) and worked on the screenplay with her blessing.