Goodbye Christopher Robin, an upcoming biopic about Winnie the Pooh creator A.A. Milne, has already signed on Domhnall Gleeson as the late writer (Deadline). Slash Film now reports that Margot Robbie may join Gleeson in the Simon Curtis-directed film, as Milne’s wife, Dorothy “Daphne” de Sélincourt.
Milne and his wife were married for 43 years. Although they hoped to conceive a girl, they instead ended up with a son: Christopher Robin Milne. Those who remember Winnie the Pooh will recall that Christopher Robin is the figure who inspired Pooh’s best friend in several of the stories.
Goodbye Christopher Robin is said to focus on the relationship between Milne and his son; one that was apparently rather rocky. Christopher Robin was none too pleased about his appearances in the Winnie the Pooh stories, and was once quoted saying:
“It seemed to me almost that my father has got to where he was by climbing upon my infant shoulders, that he had filched from me my good name and had left me with the empty fame of being his son”.
The man was never able to escape the burden of his namesake. He was reportedly teased in schools, and even in his obituary more is said about his father and namesake than is said about the man himself. Christopher Robin also had a difficult relationship with his mother, whom Margot Robbie is in talks to portray.
