Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan will play unlikely lovers in the next project from writer-director Francis Lee (“God’s Own Country”). According to Deadline, the two actresses are attached to topline romantic drama “Ammonite.” Their casting makes the film “one of the hottest projects in the works out of the UK.”

Set in a UK coastal town in the 1820s, “Ammonite” tells the love story of “paleontologist Mary Anning and a London woman of means to whom she must unexpectedly play nursemaid.” The real-life Anning lived from 1799-1847 and made several important fossil discoveries among the cliffs of Lyme Regis, her hometown.

Production on the pic will kick off in March. It hails from See-Saw, the BFI, and BBC Films. “Widows” producers Emile Sherman and Iain Canning will produce with Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly (“Lady Macbeth”).

“God’s Own Country,” Lee’s BIFA-winning feature directorial debut, also depicts a same-sex romance. The pic explores the connection between a Yorkshire farmer and the Romanian migrant worker who’s helping him out for the season.

Winslet won an Oscar for “The Reader.” You can catch her next in 2020’s “Avatar 2.” She’s filming “Blackbird,” a drama about a terminally ill woman bringing her family together one last time.

Ronan currently stars as “Mary Queen of Scots'” titular character. She’ll next be seen in an adaptation of “Little Women,” now in post-production.  She reunited with her “Lady Bird” director Greta Gerwig for the pic, scheduled to hit theaters Christmas 2019. The three-time Oscar nominee’s other recent credits include “The Seagull” and “On Chesil Beach.”