Melissa Benoist, the former Glee star who’s currently suiting up to play Supergirl for CBS, has landed a lead role in the new movie Oxford, where she’ll explore the romantic side of terminal disease with Outlander’s Sam Heughan. Benoist will play an American Rhodes Scholar who comes to England to study, and, more importantly, fall head over heels for the first good-looking cancer patient she can find.
Heughan will play Benoist’s love interest, an arrogant TA—that is, “tragic angel”—who quickly reveals that his prickly exterior is only a shield to hide the fact that he’s dying. The lovers pledge to make the most of their time together, traveling the world, treasuring each day, and reminding fans of The Notebook that Alzheimer’s isn’t the only game in town when it comes to life-affirming-and/or-ending romantic drama disorders.
Benoist’s previous film roles include Whiplash and the rodeo-romantic drama The Longest Ride, while Heughan had mostly worked in British television before landing the breakout role of heroic Highlander Jamie Fraser on Starz’s time-tossed historical hit. The pair will be playing from a script by Underworld: Awakening writer Allison Burnett, whose modern-day take on Love Story will hopefully remind people that love means never having to say you’re sorry (that the person you’re in love with is dying of cancer.)