Saoirse, Queen of Looks

 

Chris here. Two Mary Queen of Scots posters have arrived and the internet has already gone monosyllabic. Saorise Ronan and Margot Robbie are here in vivid primary colors, and honey, they are not here for any of your crap. Given the Ronan has also landed the cover of next month's Vogue, rest assured that Focus Features is hitting the pavement hard and early to solidify one of this year's Best Actress frontrunners. Before the trailer arrives tomorrow and we finally get a glimpse of Ronan's titular role heroine opposite Robbie's Queen Elizabeth, tell us which velvet high collar look is giving you goosebumps!

If they lose this year... there's always next!

by Nathaniel R

Saoirse Ronan as Mary Stuart in "Mary Queen of Scots"

Remember when Gwyneth Paltrow and Cate Blanchett were locked in battle for Best Actress 1998 with Shakespeare in Love and Elizabeth? Before that famous Oscar battle was even over Gwynnie & Cate were co-stars on the set of their follow-up The Talented Mr Ripley (1999) one of those rare Oscar intendees that actually won far more fans AFTER its underperformance at the Oscars. (Usually when intended Oscar giants underperform in awards season it's because people they aren't very good and/or people just don't like them.)

19 years later we have a vaguely similar situation happening...

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Saoirse Ronan as Mary Queen of Scots

by Murtada 

Here’s our first peek at Saoirse Ronan as the title character in Mary, Queen Of Scots. The film just started shooting in the UK with theater director Josie Rourke making it her feature directorial debut. It has a mix of veteran and upcoming actors from the non-American English speaking world in its cast. Margot Robbie, Jack Lowden (Dunkirk), Joe Alwyn (Billy Lynn himself), Guy Pearce, David Tennant, Brendan Coyle (Mr. Bates in Downton Abbey) and Gemma Chan.

The film charts the turbulent short life of Mary Stuart and her rivalry for the throne with Elizabeth 1, played in this version by Robbie. One can think of it as a sort of sequel to Elizabeth (1998) and Elizabeth The Golden Age (2007). Produced by the same people, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. The first draft of the script - hence rewritten by Beau Willimon of House of Cards fame who gets sole credit - was written by those films’ writer, Michael Hirst. It’s as if they’ve taken Samantha Morton’s Mary from the second film and given her center stage. Of course many actresses have played these two women over the years. Mostly in movies about Elizabeth although Vanessa Redgrave played Mary to Glenda Jackson’s Elizabeth in a movie with the same title back in 1971.

Ronan continues her busy post Brooklyn career. Lady Bird is coming out this fall. The adaptation of Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach will play TIFF. The Seagull adaptation that she made with Annette Bening almost two years ago must come out eventually. We wonder which one of these projects will get her invited back to Oscar? Maybe more than one. She seems like the sort who would become a regular.