Before she takes over as the Queen in Netflix’s The Crown, Olivia Colman will play… the Queen! Or, well, a Queen in Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest, The Favourite. The Greek director is back with another off-kilter, ultra-mannered drama, this time with a period setting — and the first teaser trailer has now arrived.
Colman is playing Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch, in the early 18th Century — and she’s more concerned with racing ducks and gorging on cake than winning England’s war with France. Meanwhile her close friend, Rachel Weisz’s Lady Sarah, is really running things, meaning that new servant Abigail (Emma Stone) is called upon to be Anne’s new companion.
It’s quite the cast Lanthimos has pulled together for this one, reteaming with Colman and Weisz, who both starred in The Lobster, and working with Stone for the first time. Elsewhere the film stars the likes of Nicholas Hoult and Mark Gatiss. With a 1 January 2019 release date, it could be that there are Oscar hopes for The Favourite — though it remains to be seen whether Lanthimos’ unique filmmaking style can woo the Academy at large.
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