EXCLUSIVE: Renate Reinsve has been officially confirmed for the role of Mary Wollstonecraft in Mia Hansen-Løve’s epic and intimate period drama If Love Should Die as Goodfellas boards sales for a script-backed TIFF launch where it will be one of the buzziest European productions on the market.
In fresh casting news, Reinsve is being joined by Johnny Flynn and Vicky Krieps in key roles, with Charlie Kelly, Will Keen, Tom Sturridge and Jane Beever also featuring in the cast.
The film is a European co-production between Ireland, France, Norway, Spain and UK, backed by Anonymous Content and RT Features, with Anonymous Content co-repping domestic rights with CAA Media Finance.
Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve arrives on the film fresh from her performance opposite Sebastian Stan in Cristian Mungiu’s Cannes 2026 Palme d’Or winner and awards season frontrunner Fjord, following a buzzy run on last year’s award trail with Best International Feature Film winner Sentimental Value.
Equally in demand actors Johnny Flynn and Vicky Krieps recently appeared together in Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert’s The Idiot(s) which received a buzzy world premiere in Telluride over the weekend.
Other recent credits for Flynn include A Prayer for the Dying and another raved about Telluride title, Elsinore, while Phantom Thread breakout Krieps was seen over the past year in Jim Jarmusch’s Venice 2025 Golden Lion winner feature, Father, Mother, Brother, Sister and Cannes 2025-selected drama Love Me Tender
First announced in 2024, If Love Should Die will focus on the remarkable last 12 years in the life of 18th century English writer, philosopher and women’s rights advocate Wollstonecraft, who also is famed for being the mother of Frankenstein creator Mary Shelley.
Set in England on the eve of the French Revolution, it follows Wollstonecraft, a then young, poor, solitary woman, as she carves a daring path through the ideals of the Enlightenment. Dismissed from her post as a governess, she resolves to live by her pen, against all odds.
If Love Should Die will be Hansen-Løve’s first English-language feature since Cannes 2021-selected drama Bergman Island, starring Vicky Krieps and Mia Wasikowska. To date, she has directed eight feature films with other highlights including Things to Come, starring Isabelle Huppert, which won the Berlin Film Festival’s Silver Bear for Best Director in 2016.
The film is set in the UK as well as multiple other European territories including France, Portugal, Norway, and Sweden.
Hansen-Løve will be joined on the shoot by multi-award-winning cinematographer Claire Mathon (Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Spencer, Saint Omer) and her regular editor Marion Monnier as well as production designer Mela Melak (A Real Pain, High Life) and Louise Stanton as costume designer (The Quiet Girl).
“I’m thrilled that I’m finally able to make the film I’ve been preparing for a long time and that is particularly close to my heart. It’s a huge challenge: bringing Mary Wollstonecraft to the screen for the very first time. I’m also very happy to be supported by such a talented, committed team and above all, to share this adventure with the wonderful Renate Reinsve,” said Hansen-Løve.
The production brings together a cohort of top award-winning European producers spanning Mia Hansen-Løve’s long-time producer David Thion at Paris-based Les Films Pelleas (Anatomy of a Fall); Ireland’s Patrick O’Neill and Conor Barry for Wildcard (Kneecap); María Zamora for Spain’s Elastica Films (Alcarràs); Norway’s Maria Ekerhovd at Mer Film (Sentimental Value) as well as the UK’s Joshua Horsfield and Saskia Duff at Intake Films (The Brutalist, The Testament of Ann Lee) and Thembisa Cochrane and Georgie Paget at Caspian Films (Frank & Louis).
Production is financed by Rodrigo Teixeira for RT Features (Paper Tiger, Bergman Island, Call Me By Your Name) Nick Shumaker and David Levine for Anonymous Content (Possible Love, In Waves, Nickel Boys); Raffaella Leone for Leone Film Group (Paper Tiger, Love Me Love Me, A Beautiful Day); Marco Perego for Artists Haven (Paper Tiger, Minotaur, Fjord, Butterfly Jam) and Nightjar Films (How to Shoot a Ghost), while MUBI financed development.
Coproducers are Sweden’s Marie at Kjellson and Wik (Gentle Monster), Lars Thomas Skare for Mer Film and Kristina Börjeson for Film i Väst (Sentimental Value, The Testament of Ann Lee, The Apprentice). Phillippe Martin at Les Films Pelleas, who produced Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident, is an associate producer.
The production is also coming together in association with executive producers: Franklin Laviola and Nicholas Laviola (The Man I Love), Francesca Mormanni (Cut Your Teeth) Pio & Co (It Was Just an Accident), La Femme qui Aaimait les films (A Woman’s Life), Tempio (In-I in Motion), Mikino (Drôles d’oiseaux), Bobby Allen of MUBI and Seona Bell.
Additionally, it is co-produced by Film i Väst, Arte France Cinema (Olivier Père, Rémi Burah, Mathilde Hersant), and The Match Factory in co-production with Bayerischer Rundfunk (Commissioning Editor: Harald Steinwender, Bettina Ricklefs), in collaboration with ARTE (Commissioning Editor: Barbara Häbe).
The film is supported by Eurimages, Les Films du Losange, Elastica Distribution, Leone Distribution, Norwegian Film Institute, Screen Ireland, Mediafondet Zefyr, Vestnorsk Filmsenter, ICAA, Arte France, Canal+, Cine+/OCS, Filmin, HBO (Spain), Région Île-de-France, Région Normandie, UK Global Screen Fund, with support from BFI and National Lottery.
Mia Hansen-Love is repped by Gersh Agency and Intertalent; Reinsve, by CAA and Narrative PR; Flynn, by CAA, United Agents and Public Eye Communications and Krieps is repped by United Agents, CAA, Agence Adequat and Tapestry London. Will Keen and Charlie Kelly are repped by Independent Talent Group, and Tom Sturridge is repped by WME and Independent Talent Group.
