"Effie Gray" and Star Dakota Fanning Bail on Mill Valley Film Festival

Effie Gray, a film about the "curiously brief marriage and abrupt annulment of famed art critic  John Ruskin and his ethereal child bride – played by actress Dakota Fanning – has canceled its world premiere screening Saturday at the 36th Mill Valley Film Festival, with its producer Donald Rosenfeld citing "unforeseen circumstance."

Fanning was set to be the subject of a Spotlight program and Q&A after the screening at the Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. She won't be appearing at the festival this year as a result of the cancellation.

No specific reason was given for the cancellation, though the film, the screenplay of which was written by famed actress Emma Thompson, has been the subject of a legal fight with Gregory Murphy, a "playwright who alleges that the Oscar-winning actress drew inspiration for her screenplay from his play, The Countess, which was performed in the West End in 2005," according to the The Telegraph newspaper.

Murphy told the paper last month that Thompson and her legal team had until November to reply to an appeal Murphy filed after he lost an earlier legal battle over the film.

Effie Gray had originally been planned to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May.