We are never going to stop talking about the Tudors are we? We’ve had Elizabeth and Henry VIII running around for years now and in the near future, Focus Features plans to branch out to the extended family with Mary, Queen of Scots, about – you guessed it – Mary, Queen of Scots. While word on the project was quiet for a while, today we’re hearing that the Scottish Queen will be embodied in the film by Saoirse Ronan, according to The Film Stage.
Ronan is the young actress from The Lovely Bones, Atonement and Hanna, if you didn’t recognize her name. She certainly looks the part of the ill-fated Queen and personally, I think this is a very smart bit of casting.
Elizabeth never had the ups and downs of her cousin Mary. Crowned Queen of Scotland as an infant, Mary went through a series of very unfortunate events, most of them because of her spectacularly bad taste in men – she married her cousin and his supposed murderer, among others. She then had to throw herself on the mercy of her English cousin, who didn’t like her very much either and, following an apparent assassination attempt, had her beheaded. Good times for the Tudor household. Then again, Mary did sire King James who would ultimately make Britain into Britain, so perhaps she didn’t do everything wrong.
No news yet on a director to guide Ronan through poor Mary’s trials and tribulations, but Michael Hirst of The Tudors is attached as writer.
I for one am sick to death of the Tudors – according to Hollywood, English history begins and ends in the 16th Century – but Mary’s story is tailor-made for cinema. Ronan is a good match for the part too but as with anything, we won’t know how good until we see her in action.
We’ll keep you updated on more news about Mary, Queen of Scots as it arises.
