She refused to take no for an answer in Fatal Attraction and now, after a 20-year campaign, Glenn Close has finally got her way on an Irish film project.

Since starring in the stage version of George Moore’s The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs in the 1980s, the actress has been lobbying producers and distributors to finance a movie adaptation of the Irish novelist’s work.

Last week the project finally got the green light and it is expected to be one of the most high-profile films shot in Ireland this year. The cast includes Orlando Bloom, whose credits include Pirates of the Caribbean, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, the Irish actor who starred in The Tudors. The production is scheduled to begin filming in Dublin in June.

Close, who adapted the story for the big screen with John Banville, the Booker Prize-winning novelist from Wexford, will play the title character and Amanda Seyfried, the star of Mamma Mia!, will be her love interest.

The story, which was written in the late 1800s, follows a woman who disguises herself as a man in order to find a job in Ireland but ends up in an unusual love triangle.

Banville, who started working on Albert Nobbs seven years ago, said Close was not your “usual notion of a Hollywood woman” and that she had contributed greatly to the script. “She’s very bright and a great writer. There are scenes in there that I couldn’t have done but she knew what would work,” he said.

“I didn’t know the story before Glenn came along. It’s not the greatest short story but it has made the most exceptional script. It doesn’t seem like the most likely movie material. It’s a strange story. I can imagine Glenn pitching it to someone in Hollywood — they’d have thought she was mad.”

Most of the narrative is set in a hotel in Victorian Dublin where Nobbs works as a waiter. As she adjusts to her new role as a man in society, she courts a maid — Seyfried — and reveals her secret to a guest.

The long-running project gained momentum early in the last decade when a scriptwriter, director and producer were secured. However the director left the project and Close was not happy with the script, originally by a Hungarian writer.

Finding financial backing for the quirky story was also difficult but last year Close attracted two American producers to the project. Alan Moloney of Parallel Films, the Irish production company, has also been attached, making the film eligible for the state’s film tax breaks.

Close said the movie adaptation would be the challenge of her career. “I believe in this story and its potential to take everyone on a sensuous, funny, heart-breaking, wildly unexpected ride,” she said.

The actress won an Obie Award and critical acclaim for playing Nobbs in the off-Broadway adaptation. The film is directed by Rodrigo Garcia, who has already made two movies with Close. He described Albert Nobbs as a “sexy love triangle”. The Irish Film Board has provided €20,000 in start-up funding.