Last November, Saoirse Ronan was announced to be taking on the title role in Emma Thompson-penned period romantic drama “Effie”, but as is often the case in long-gestating projects, Ronan, along with co-star Orlando Bloom, has moved on. Deadline reports Dakota Fanning is now in negotiations for the part vacated by Ronan, and British up and comer Tom Sturridge will replace Bloom as her love interest.

Thompson, director Richard Laxton and actor Greg Wise remain on board. The film tells the story of Effie Gray, who marries a much older man, John Ruskin, only to fall in love with and run away with his more age-appropriate protege, the painter John Everett Millais. Sturridge will be Millais and Wise, Ruskin. Julie Walters, Derek Jacobi and Edward Fox have also joined the new cast. The film will begin production soon with the hope of having its world premiere at the 2012 Venice Film Festival.

Fanning recently took a short hiatus from work to finish high school, but has been back on the job with a vengeance. She recently completed work on gritty drama “The Motel Life”, jewelry heist thriller “Mississippi Wild” and is currently filming angsty teen drama “Now is Good” opposite “War Horse” star Jeremy Irvine. Sturridge is part of the impressive ensemble cast of Walter Salles’ adaptation of “On the Road” and will next star opposite Jeremy Irons in pre-WWI family drama “The Tree House”.

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Last fall, a rather interesting project was coming together based around a script from actress/screenwriter Emma Thompson. Titled “Effie,” the film lined up a solid cast with Saorise Ronan, Orlando Bloom, Imelda Staunton, Greg Wise and Thompson herself in the strange-but-true story that centers on the wedding night between Victorian artist, architect, poet and political thinker John Ruskin and his wife, Effie Gray. Ruskin was long infatuated with Gray and married her when she was 17. However, when it came time to consummate their marriage, something so reviled Ruskin that Gray remained a virgin until after they divorced and she remarried his protege, painter, John Everett Millais. While it has never been established just what disgusted Ruskin to the point he refused to have sex with his wife, theories over the years have speculated it might have been pubic hair or menstrual blood.

Ronan and Wise were set to play Effie and Ruskin respectively but production is now being held up as playwright Gregory Murphy has taken the film’s producers to court citing copywright infringement.

You see, back in 1999 Murphy’s play “The Countess,” also about the Effie/Ruskin/Millais affair, hit stages to strong reviews and was even revived in 2005. Murphy feels that Thompson’s script is too close for comfort to this work and thus, the ensuing legal battle. Thompson’s camp maintains she never had access to Murphy’s play and didn’t copy it.

Regardless, this throws a major wrench into getting the film underway. “In order to close financing to produce a motion picture based on Effie, [the plaintiff] must be able to demonstrate that there is no validity to Mr. Murphy’s claim of infringement,” says the complaint in the lawsuit. No word yet on how long this might take to resolve (attention lawyers, throwing Murphy a story credit might be the quickest way to get him off your back) but Ronan and Bloom can chat about it on the set of “The Hobbit.”

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At 16 years old, Saoirse Ronan has landed what may be her most adult and potentially controversial role to date.

Production Weekly has tweeted that Ronan will take on the titular character of “Effie” in the upcoming film written by Emma Thompson. The intriguing material will center on the wedding night between Victorian artist, architect, poet and political thinker John Ruskin and his wife, Effie Gray. Ruskin was long infatuated with Gray and married her when she was 17. However, when it came time to consummate their marriage, something so reviled Ruskin that Gray remained a virgin until after they divorced and she remarried his protege, painter, John Everett Millais. While it has never been established just what disgusted Ruskin to the point he refused to have sex with his wife, theories over the years have speculated it might have been pubic hair or menstrual blood.

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“He alleged various reasons, hatred to children, religious motives, a desire to preserve my beauty, and finally this last year he told me his true reason… that he had imagined women were quite different to what he saw I was, and that the reason he did not make me his Wife was because he was disgusted with my person the first evening 10th April,” wrote to her parents. And during the divorce proceedings Ruskin stated, “It may be thought strange that I could abstain from a woman who to most people was so attractive. But though her face was beautiful, her person was not formed to excite passion. On the contrary, there were certain circumstances in her person which completely checked it.”

Thompson’s husband and producer Greg Wise, who will play the part of Ruskin in the film, told the Guardian earlier in the year that, “We have tried to stick to what Effie wrote about the incident but you never really know if Ruskin had set her up for it in some way. She had to go to the ecclesiastical court to get a divorce, so if nothing else you have to admire the strength of character of this girl.”

It promises to be some powerful material. Orlando Bloom, Imelda Staunton and Emma Thompson are also among the cast and while a director hasn’t been formally revealed, IMDB lists Richard Laxton (”An Englishman In New York”) as the man behind the camera. No word yet on a start date but production was reported earlier in the year to take place in Venice and Scotland. It’s also unknown how her involvement may affect her rumored part in Peter Jackson‘s “The Hobbit.”

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