Ellen Page is getting political by signing up for Freeheld, a movie version of Cynthia Wade’s 2008 Oscar-winning short documentary, about New Jersey car mechanic Stacie Adgee (Page) and her policewoman girlfriend, Laurel Hester, who battled together to secure Hester’s pension benefits for Adgee, after Laurel was diagnosed with a terminal illness.
Gay marriage, civil partnerships and what rights long-term gay couple should legally be able to secure is a hot button topic in America at the moment, and it would seem this film is out to steer hearts and minds.
To help them with that, Ron Nyswaner, who wrote Philadelphia, has come on-board to handle the script. He wrote Phildelphia methodically and very specifically so that it would play beyond a gay audience and speak to people who were unsympathetic to those with AIDS, and presumably he’ll try and do the same with Freeheld, suggesting that perhaps more rights for gay couples states that don’t have them wouldn’t go amiss, and won’t bring down the end of civilisation.