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Carey Mulligan Will Play Gloria Steinem in Dee Rees’ ‘An Uncivil War’

Another case of the rival biopic!
Carey Mulligan Suffragette
By  · Published on November 6th, 2017

Another case of the rival biopic!

Variety announced that Carey Mulligan has been cast to play Gloria Steinem in the Dee Rees-directed biopic, An Uncivil War.

News of two Steinem castings came in within a couple of days of each other last week. Julianne Moore is also slated to play the iconic feminist activist in Julie Taymor’s film, My Life on the Road. My Life on the Road will be based on Steinem’s early career, using her memoir for reference. Meanwhile, An Uncivil War specifically tackles Steinem and lawyer Florynce Kennedy’s support for the Equal Rights Amendment, with conservative organizer Phyllis Schlafly opposing them. No other casting announcements have been made at this time, but with the aim to start shooting An Uncivil War in the first quarter of 2018, major roles like Kennedy and Schlafly will likely fill up soon.

An Uncivil War is written by David Kukoff and will be backed by FilmNation. Rees, best known for films such as 2011’s Pariah and the 2017’s Oscar-buzzed Mudbound, has already had a phenomenal year so far. We reported in September that Rees will also be adapting Joan Didion’s 1996 novel, The Last Thing He Wanted. Speaking of her partnership with FilmNation on An Uncivil War, Rees said:

“I’m particularly interested in digging into the messiness of the women’s movement — the many different alliances that were formed and fractured and exploring who got left behind versus who got remembered. The richness and texture of this story lie in the complicated bargains struck and broken in the imperfect, stuttering trajectory toward equality. Thrilled that FilmNation let me put my own spin on the script and I’m going to have a lot of fun putting together another amazing ensemble cast to ignite it.”

An Uncivil War will be Mulligan’s and Rees’ second team-up after Mudbound, which has received glowing reviews since its Sundance premiere. Indiewire compliments Mudbound, particularly as a “staggeringly beautiful vision”  that is “a sobering commentary on timeless struggles” despite the historical context of the film. Vulture’s review praises Rees and “her ability to break her characters open one by one and reveal their souls.” Refinery29 had a much simpler assessment that drives the point home: “Give Dee Rees all the awards!”

So, until An Uncivil War goes into production and eventually hits cinemas, Mudbound should prove a more-than-adequate Rees and Mulligan fix. Mudbound is due to release on Netflix in just over a week, on November 17th.

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Sheryl Oh often finds herself fascinated (and let's be real, a little obsessed) with actors and their onscreen accomplishments, developing Film School Rejects' Filmographies column as a passion project. She's not very good at Twitter but find her at @sherhorowitz anyway. (She/Her)