Carla Gugino “couldn’t be more excited” to play Hollywood screen icon Vivien Leigh in the upcoming movie The Florist.

The Spy Kids actress will play the Gone With the Wind star in Nick Sandow’s biographical drama, which explores Leigh’s struggle with bipolar disorder as she gears up to lead John Gielgud’s Broadway production of Anton Chekhov’s Ivanov in 1966.

The show was Leigh’s final theatre performance as she died of tuberculosis the following year, aged 53.

“I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity to excavate a woman as complex, contradictory, and compelling as Vivien. From the moment I read the script, I knew The Florist was a journey I had to pursue,” Gugino told Variety.

The title of the film refers to Joseph Penn, a World War II veteran and florist who encounters the British actress on a delivery. Around the same time, she receives electroconvulsive therapy at a local psychiatric facility.

“Amidst the backdrop of madness, Leigh and Penn become each other’s sources of truth, beauty, and love,” reads the synopsis.

The script was based on a box of love letters and written by Jayce Bartok.

Director Sandow, who is best known for playing Joe Caputo in Orange Is the New Black, added, “What drew me to the project was the script and how it brings together, for a fleeting moment, two human beings who seemingly couldn’t be more different. I was excited by taking these two discordant existences and making them touch, and seeing what that says about things like love, artistry, mental illness, and celebrity.”

The Florist is due to begin filming in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the end of the summer.

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