Kate Winslet has been announced as the star of a new biopic about Vogue cover model-turned-war correspondent Lee Miller.
The film, called Lee, will follow the life and experiences of the photojournalist as she travels to the frontline of World War II and tries to expose the horrific truths of the Nazis.
Throughout her journey she then comes to realise the truths of her own past.
New release: Kate Winslet has been announced as the star of a new biopic about Vogue cover model turned war correspondent Lee Miller
The film will be directed by Ellen Kuras who was the cinematographer of Kate’s 2004 hit film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which also starred Jim Carrey.
Ms Kuras told Deadline: ‘Since our experience together on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Kate and I have talked often about collaborating on something of our own.
‘Lee gives us an irresistible opportunity to do that with a script written by Liz Hannah, a brilliant writer whom we admire so much.’
Noble: The film, called Lee, will follow the life and experiences of the photojournalist as she travels to the frontline of World War II and tries to expose the horrific truths of the Nazis
The film, which could be released as early as next year, will be adapted from the book The Lives of Lee Miller, written by Lee’s son, Antony Penrose.
Ms Kuras added: ‘This is a film which takes us on a journey that encounters loyalty and betrayal, but ultimately reveals the enigma that Lee was – as someone who buried her own hidden truths within.
‘Lee Miller was known for the way the world saw her, but now we can show that her greatest contribution came from how she saw the world’
Biopic: The film, which could be released as early as next year, will be adapted from the book The Lives of Lee Miller, written by Lee’s son, Antony Penrose
Oscar-winning actress Kate, 44, who is also producing the film, said: ‘A woman I admire tremendously and whom I am so thrilled to be playing in this film. An extreme lover, thinker, life liver, cook, Vogue cover girl, war correspondent, icon, mother.’
Ms Kuras is the three-time winner of the Award for Excellence in Dramatic Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival.
She was nominated for an Oscar in 2009 for the first film she directed – a documentary called The Betrayal.
Reunion: The film will be directed by Ellen Kuras who was the cinematographer of Kate’s 2004 hit film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which also starred Jim Carrey (above)
Miller was among the most important photographers to record the 20th century.
Her talents were first put on full display in American Vogue during the 1920s when she became one of the country’s most sought-after models.
In 1929, after her modelling career hit controversy when her image was used in a menstrual pad advert, Miller traveled to Paris with the intention of apprenticing herself to the surrealist artist and photographer Man Ray.
She honed her skills under the guidance of the great photographers of her day, including Man Ray, her became her lover during the early 1930s.
Powerful: Miller was among the most important photographers to record the 20th century
Living in Hampstead, north London, with her son Antony when the bombing of the city began, Miller decided to embark on a new career in photojournalism as the official war photographer for Vogue, documenting the Blitz.
Her work would later take her across the whole of Europe, working for the Allied forces and teaming up with fellow American photographer David E Scherman, a correspondent for Life magazine.
She also witnessed the liberation of Paris, the Battle of Alsace, and the horrors of the first soldiers arriving at Nazi concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau.
New beginnings: Living in Hampstead, north London, when the bombing of the city began, Miller decided to embark on a new career in photojournalism as the official war photographer for Vogue
And while visiting Germany, David Scherman took a photograph of Miller lying in the bathtub of Adolf Hitler’s apartment in Munich, with its shower hose looped in the center behind her head, resembling a noose.
The images became one of the most iconic of their partnership, and showed off her infamous modelling skills.
It is believed Miller had kept the address of Hitler’s apartment in her pocket ‘for years’, hoping to be one of the first to arrive during the invasion. After taking the bathtub picture, Miller took a bath in the tub and slept in Hitler’s bed.
Ahead of her time: Lee felt photography was ‘ideally suited to women as a profession, for it seems to me that women are quicker and more adaptable than men’
After returning to the UK, Miller buried the record of her remarkable life in boxes in the attic of her Sussex home – and they were not found until after her death by her son, who was able to chronicle her achievements, according to the BBC.
When Lee returned to New York from Europe in October 1932, newspaper reporters were waiting to greet her as her ship docked. Disembarking in a smart beret and fur-collared coat, she smiled for the journalist from the New York World-Telegram.
She felt that photography was ‘ideally suited to women as a profession, for it seems to me that women are quicker and more adaptable than men. And I think they have an intuition that helps them understand personalities more quickly than men.’
She spent the later years of her life in England and died there in 1977, aged 70.
Hidden treasures: After returning to the UK, Miller buried the record of her remarkable life in boxes in the attic of her Sussex home – and they were not found until after her death