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Rebecca Ferguson is set to star as Ruth Harkness in the historical adventure “The Lady and the Panda”.
Justin Chadwick is directing the film from a script he wrote with Laura Bickford and Holly Gent Palmo, based on Harkness’ original correspondence.
Harkness, a wealthy New York socialite, was the first person to bring a live panda from China to the United States. When her explorer husband died unexpectedly in 1936 she took over his expedition to China and traveled into the uncharted Himalayas, where they rescued an orphaned baby panda.
The UK/China production is produced by Bickford and Michelle Qi, with exec producers Joe Simpson of Miscellaneous Entertainment, Andrew Mann, and Fiona Druckenmiller.
Filming is expected to begin next month in China in the Sichuan region in the foothills of the Himalayas.
