Saoirse Ronan Set to Play MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS
Hanna star Saoirse Ronan is set to play the title role in the period drama, Mary Queen Of Scots. The movie was written by MichaelHirst(Elizabeth, Elizabeth: The Golden Age), and is obviously based on Mary, who was crowned the queen of Scotland before she was a year old. As a history buff, I'll be looking forward to this.
Ronan is a fantastically talented young actress who's going to be great in this role. She broke out with her Oscar-nominated performance in Atonement, starred in Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones, and she just finished shooting Andrew Niccol's The Host, which is based on the novel by Stephenie Meyer. She also wrapped on Neil Jordan’s Byzantium, and she’s currently shooting the Kevin Macdonald-directed film How I Live Now.
The movie is being developed by Working Title, which just wrapped the big screen adaptation of the musical Les Miserables withHugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway.
Here's a little history lesson for those of you who weren't paying attention in class...
Mary was queen of Scotland from December 14th 1542 to July 24th 1567 and queen consort of France from July 10th 1559 to December 5th 1560.
Mary was the only surviving legitimate child of King James V of Scotland. She was 6 days old when her father died and she was crowned nine months later. In 1558, she married Francis, Dauphin of France. He ascended the French throne as King Francis II in 1559, and Mary became queen consort of France until she was widowed on 5 December 1560. Mary then returned to Scotland, arriving in Leith on 19 August 1561. Four years later, she married her first cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, but their union was unhappy. In February 1567, his residence was destroyed by an explosion, and Darnley was found murdered in the garden.
James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, was generally believed to have orchestrated Darnley's death, but he was acquitted of the charge in April 1567, and the following month he married Mary. Following an uprising against the couple, Mary was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle. On 24 July 1567, she was forced to abdicate in favour of her one-year-old son, James. After an unsuccessful attempt to regain the throne, she fled southwards seeking the protection of her first cousin once removed, Queen Elizabeth I of England. Mary had previously claimed Elizabeth's throne as her own and was considered the legitimate sovereign of England by many English Catholics, including participants in a rebellion known as the Rising of the North. Perceiving her as a threat, Elizabeth had her confined in a number of castles and manor houses in the interior of England. After 18 years and 9 months in custody, Mary was tried and executed for her involvement in plots to assassinate Elizabeth.