Did legal battle block premiere of Emma Thompson's period drama Effie Gray? Emma Thompson wrote and starred in Effie Gray due to debut at Cannes Movie has yet to be shown to public after multiple screenings cancelled Little-known American playwright says film drew on his work The Countess New York court ruled against him but he is now appealing the verdict Film of Victorian scandal of teenage wife who fell for husband's protege It has been a long-running passion and project for Emma Thompson - but two years after filming wrapped on her period drama Effie Gray, the movie has yet to be shown to the public. Two festival screenings in America have just been cancelled due to mysterious "unforeseen circumstances" - five months after its much lauded Cannes premiere was also cancelled. Thompson not only stars in the drama about the love triangle between Victorian art critic John Ruskin, his virginal wife Effie Gray and pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais, but also wrote the screenplay. Dakota Fanning (right), who also wrote the screenplay plays Effie Gray alongside Emma Thompson as Lady Eastlake. The film has yet to be shown to the public after a series of screenings were cancelled However, her script has been the subject of a fierce legal battle, with American writer Gregory Murphy alleging that Thompson drew inspiration from his first play, The Countess, which had a brief run in London's West End in 2005. Producers insist that although the film was pulled from the International Hamptons Film Festival in Long Island and the Mill Valley Film Festival in California, there was no legal bar to it being screened. A New York judge declared the script was "not substantially similar" to Murphy's work. After the ruling, Thompson pursued Murphy for £100,000 in costs. However the playwright has lodged an appeal, claiming that the ruling was flawed. American writer Gregory Murphy has claimed that the script, about a Victorian love scandal involving the title character (pictured) drew on his work The Countess and though a New York judge has ruled otherwise he is appealing the decision The producers of Effie Gray must respond by next month but have apparently asked for an extension. The film stars Thompson's husband, Greg Wise, as Rankin; Dakota Fanning in the title role; and Tom Sturridge as Millais. Thompson plays fellow critic Lady Eastlake. The story scandalised Victorian society. In 1848, Ruskin married the 19-year-old Effie Gray - but after six unhappy years, she fell in love with her husband's protege, Millais, and had the marriage annulled on the basis she was still a virgin - something confirmed by two doctors. It was said that Ruskin, who had seen naked women only in paintings, was repulsed by his wife's pubic hair and refused to touch her. After Murphy first made his allegations, Thompson agreed to an extraordinary meeting with him at her London home in 2009, as first revealed in The Mail on Sunday. But after that failed to resolve the issue, the actress took Murphy to court, leading to the ruling that the American is now contesting.