Gemma Arterton is a busy woman. She’s currently the toast of Hollywood and so is attached to all manner of movies. Indeed she’s so in demand that even she’s lost track of what’s going on, but perhaps her confusion is a good thing, as it means she’s let slip she’ll be starring in a biopic of famed war photographer Robert Capa, alongside the new Spider-man, Andrew Garfield.
Talking to Total Film about being their 2010 Hot List Hottest Actress, she says, “This year’s been intense, but next year’s going to be… intenser! [Laughs] I’m attached to about nine projects but I’m not sure which one’s I’m allowed to talk about.
“But I’m aiming for even more diversity. Capa [biopic about the combat photographer Robert Capa] is confirmed, so I should be working with your hottest actor, Andrew Garfield! [Garfield is lined up to play Capa, Arterton plays his partner, Gerda Taro, the first female photojournalist to cover the front lines of a war] and of course there’s Clash 2…
“And, fingers crossed, I’ll be working with Michael Winterbottom on London Fields and then there’s… actually, no, I better stop. You’re going to get me into trouble… But thanks for the award!”
Michael Mann is directing the film, which is based on Robert Capa, by Susana Fortes. The book focuses on Capa’s early years, starting in Paris in 1935, where he is living as a refugee from fascist Hungary. There he meets German Jewish refugee Gerda Taro, with whom he starts a torrid two-year romance. In 1936 the Spanish Civil War breaks out, with Capa and Taro heading off to the frontline to make their names as a war photographers, with tragic concequences. He really was an incredible photographer, so let’s hope his life is just as interesting.