TORONTO – Actress Rachel McAdams has reportedly signed on to portray the late Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis in a new feature film.
McAdams, 33, will star in Maudie for Québécois film director Jean-François Pouliot. The Toronto resident and London, Ontario born star of such films as Sherlock Holmes and Midnight in Paris has made several films in her native country, including The Time Traveller’s Wife and The Vow.
Lewis, who died in 1970 at the age of 67, was disabled as a result of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and lived most of her life in poverty in Nova Scotia. Her husband Everett Lewis encouraged her to paint and she went on to capture outdoor scenes and animals on surfaces like pulp and metal.
Her one-room home is currently on display at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax along with a large collection of her work. Several documentary films have been made about Lewis and she is the subject of a book, The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis, and the stage play A Happy Heart: The Maud Lewis Story.
Production of Maudie is expected to begin next year in Ontario.
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