Focus Features tosses its hat into the Oscar ring with the unveiling of the first official trailer for Mary Queen of Scots. The two and a half minute trailer touches upon how the friendship between Mary Stuart and Queen Elizabeth I turned into a war that ultimately cost one of the rival Queens her head.
Three-time Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird, Brooklyn, Atonement) stars as Mary Stuart and Oscar nominee Margot Robbie (I, Tonya) is Queen Elizabeth I in the period drama from director Josie Rourke.
“Your beauty, your bravery…Now I see there’s no cause for envy,” says Robbie as Queen Elizabeth I while removing her wig. “Your gifts will be your downfall.”
“Should you murder me, remember you murder your sister – and you murder your Queen,” replies Ronan’s Mary Stuart.
In addition to Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie, the cast of Mary Queen of Scots includes Jack Lowden, Joe Alwyn, Gemma Chan, Martin Compston, Ismael Cordova, Brendan Coyle, Ian Hart, Adrian Lester, James McArdle, David Tennant, and Guy Pearce.
Beau Willimon (The Ides of March, House of Cards) wrote the screenplay based on John Guy’s Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart. Josie Rourke (artistic director of The Donmar Warehouse) directed and Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, and Debra Hayward served as producers.
Focus Features and Working Title will release Mary Queen of Scots in theaters on December 7, 2018.
The Plot: Mary Queen of Scots explores the turbulent life of the charismatic Mary Stuart (Ronan). Queen of France at 16 and widowed at 18, Mary defies pressure to remarry. Instead, she returns to her native Scotland to reclaim her rightful throne. But Scotland and England fall under the rule of the compelling Elizabeth I (Robbie). Each young Queen beholds her “sister” in fear and fascination.
Rivals in power and in love, and female regents in a masculine world, the two must decide how to play the game of marriage versus independence. Determined to rule as much more than a figurehead, Mary asserts her claim to the English throne, threatening Elizabeth’s sovereignty. Betrayal, rebellion, and conspiracies within each court imperil both thrones – and change the course of history.
