Vibrators, then. Stop sniggering at the back! It might be nearly impossible for some people to think of the things without giggling, but that’s exactly what the producers of the indie rom-com Hysteria will want to inspire, and they’ve enticed Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancyinto a tale of the first one ever to hit the spot. Market! We said market.
Written by Stephen and Jonah Lisa Dyer, Hysteria will chronicle the largely accidental creation of the device in Victorian England, with Dancy and Jonathan Pryce as doctors treating the titular medical issue in women. To help with their inexplicable emotional outbursts (got to love that Victorian attitude, eh?), Dancy and scientist pal Rupert Everett try a newly invented electrical device. Gyllenhaal, meanwhile, will be Pryce’s daughter. Oh, and while Variety has the story, Screen Crave gets the first credit for Gyllenhaal’s casting.
Tanya Wexler will shoot the film in London and Luxembourg this October, and the first one to suggest the movie will need to build some buzz gets slapped round the phizog with a Victorian smoking glove.