Ellen Page is the Lioness

“X-Men” alum Ellen Page will star in a biopic on gay marine Lance Corporal Leslie Martz, a U.S. Marine who was stationed in Iraq.

James Dahl is developing and packaging “Lioness”, which is written by “Matador” scribe Rosalin Ross. There’s no director onboard yet.

Says THR, “Lioness tells the true story of Lance Corporal Leslie Martz, a U.S. Marine who was stationed in Haditha, Iraq. Martz was sent to Afghanistan as a leader of a Female Engagement Team and tasked with the dual mandate of gaining the trust of Afghan women by equipping them with necessary skills for independence but also secretly extracting information from them about their Taliban husbands.
The soldier, who now lives in San Diego, was waging a personal war on several fronts. She was hiding the fact that was she was a gay woman in the military and on top of that found herself torn between the desire to prove herself to her superiors and the allegiance she developed toward the women and children whose strength and courage she grew to admire.”

Next, Page appears in “Freeheld”, the same-sex civil rights drama opposite Julianne Moore and Michael Shannon.