Charlie’s Angels star Kristen Stewart is set to portray Princess Di in the upcoming drama movie Spencer, and Pablo Larra&ín is also on board to direct the project with Peaky Blinders writer Steven Knight penning the screenplay. Known for directing movies like Jackie and Neruda, Larra&ín will also be serving as a producer for Spencer in addition to helming the project. Larra&ín’s Fabula partners Juan de Dios, Jonas Dornbach, Janine Jackowski, and Paul Webster will also produce.
Spencer is not quite a Princess Diana biopic, focusing particularly on one critical weekend in her life in the early ’90s. Taking place over the span of three days, the movie delves into the moments when “Diana decided her marriage to Prince Charles wasn’t working, and that she needed to veer from a path that put her in line to one day be queen.” Famously, Diana and Charles had divorced in 1996 after the two had been married since 1981, and the sordid details of their relationship had been highly publicized at the time. After walking away from royalty, the former Princess of Wales was killed in 1997 as the result of a devastating car crash while fleeing from paparazzi, but that incident won’t be covered in the movie.
Speaking about his desire to work on Spencer, says he has always been fascinated by Diana’s story, as it’s essentially the exact opposite of a fairy tale. “Usually, the prince comes and finds the princess, invites her to become his wife and eventually she becomes queen. That is the fairy tale,” Pablo Larra&ín explains. “When someone decides not to be the queen, and says, I’d rather go and be myself, it’s a big big decision, a fairy tale upside down. I’ve always been very surprised by that and thought it must have been very hard to do. That is the heart of the movie.”
This will also provide an excellent opportunity for Stewart to shine with Spencer casting her in the all-important role of Princess Di. Still trying to shed her association to Twilight, Kristen Stewart has been exploring more of her range as an actress in more recent roles. She has taken on more dramatic roles in movies like Clouds of Sils Maria, which even won her a Cesar Award for Best Supporting Actress. Earlier this year, Stewart also impressed many viewers and critics with her performance in the horror movie Underwater. Princess Di will be unlike anything we’ve seen from the 30-year-old actress yet, and it will be interesting to see how she does with the role.
Production on Spencer is reportedly set to begin in early 2021, and the package will be shopped to potential buyers at the Virtual Cannes Market. As Princess Di is still remembered fondly as one of history’s most beloved and iconic women, there will likely be a lot of interest surrounding the project. “Diana was many things, but chief among them, she was a great mother,” Larra&ín says. “This is the story of a woman who understands the most important thing for a woman in her life is her own children.”
This news comes to us from Deadline.
