Gyllenhaal Thrusts Herself onto ‘Hysteria’

Variety confirms that Maggie Gyllenhaal has joined the project and breaks the news that Hugh Dancy will be ready for the October shoot of Hysteria, the true story about the invention of the first vibrator set in Victorian England to be directed by Tanya Wexler. Gyllenhaal would be replacing the once attached Sally Hawkins and seeing that this will play as a comedy, my thinking is we can expect something in the tone of a Calender Girls and Kinsey, so I don’t imagine her having to put a brave face a la Secretary or Sherrybaby for the role.

Synopsis: Scripted by Stephen Dyer and Jonah Lisa Dyer, this is set in Victorian England, 1880. Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy), a young doctor sick of his colleagues’ medieval practices, starts working for Dr Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce), who treats women’s “hysteria” by offering them intimate manual relief… Demand is so great that Mortimer fears for the use of his hands. With the help of his friend Edmund (Rupert Everett), a millionaire dandy with a passion for electricity, he comes up with the world’s first vibrator, which proves wildly successful. Along the way, he falls in love with Dalrymple’s fiery, beautiful oldest daughter, Charlotte (Gyllenhaal). But there are other, loving eyes fixed on the good doctor...

Producers are Forthcoming Films’ Sarah Curtis, Beachfront Films’ Tracey Becker and Informant Media’s Judy Cairo who produced Crazy Heart. Shooting’s scheduled in October in London and Luxembourg. Exec producers on are Informant’s Michael A. Simpson and Eric Brenner, Sandra Siegal and Ken Atchity, Mark Kress, and Stephen Dyer. Co-producers are Anouk Nora of France’s By Alternative Pictures and Jimmy deBrabant of Luxembourg’s Delux Films.