Gillian Anderson to Play War Journalist, Hemingway's Ex Gellhorn

Gillian Anderson is all about Martha Gellhorn, a war reporter who covered conflicts for 60 years. As a correspondent for Collier's Weekly, she reported on the Spanish Civil War, along with her future husband, Ernest Hemingway. Ms. Anderson read Caroline Moorehead's 2004 biography Gellhorn: A Twentieth-Century Life and was hooked. "Martha Gellhorn was one of the most respected journalists of this century, and I thought Caroline's biography effectively encompassed her rich and complex life," Ms. Anderson told Variety. She was so taken with Ms. Gellhorn's story that she's producing and starring in a new movie about the journalist.

Ms. Anderson's company, Fiddlehead Productions, has acquired rights to the book and British playwright and screenwriter Sharman Macdonald is writing the script.

Hemingway himself called Ms.Gellhorn "the most ambitious woman who ever lived." The couple married in 1940. He was her second husband and she was his third wife. Ms. Gellhorn left Mr. Hemingway after five years. She was the only one of his wives to do so.