Every royal with a story worth telling is getting some big screen time. Queen Elizabeth II has both a biopic (The Queen) and an upcoming fictional film, the rom-com Girls’ Night Out. King George VI stuttered his way into the Oscar panel’s hearts last year in The King’s Speech, and this year King Edward VIII gave up the throne for love in W.E. And yet Princess Diana, whose personal life made her the center of tabloid scrutiny for years, has yet to see her life portrayed on screen.
Update: Carey Mulligan‘s reps are denying her involvement in the film. Check back for updates as the casting for these three biopics gets underway.
Now it seems like the movie industry is overcompensating – the People’s Princess will soon have not one, but possibly three biopics. As reported by British paper the Sunday Mirror, a movie based on the memoir Diana: Closely Guarded Secret could hit theaters by 2013. The story will be told from the point of view of her longtime bodyguard Ken Wharfe, who wrote the book, and will span 11 years of her life, beginning shortly after Prince Harry’s birth and before her 1996 divorce from Prince Charles. Considering the time frame, the film would omit her accidental death in 1997.
The project first surfaced back in October 2010, and now rumors have Charlize Theron and Carey Mulligan vying for the coveted lead role with Ewan McGregor lined up to play Wharfe. However, the film’s producer Stephen Evans (Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind) indicated that final casting decisions are still up in the air:
It’s a slightly closed book until we get her. We are looking at one or two relatively unknowns we think could play Diana well, and also one or two very famous people. How do you know when you’ve found the right person? When you’ve made the movie. You see, that’s the risk.
He also went on to say, “we are dealing with about 11 years of her life from just after she had Harry. The emphasis is authenticity and to discover what she went through. Unless you are a Diana freak, quite a lot of it will be unknown to the audience.” The news comes a few months after Jessica Chastain signed on to star in Caught in Flight, the Oliver Hirschbiegel-directed biopic about Diana’s relationship with heart surgeon Hasnat Khan. Chastain isn’t the only one to step into Di’s fashionable shoes – while its fate is still uncertain, either Keira Knightley or Scarlett Johansson could secure the role in Diana, the third biopic that was originally slated to release two years ago on what would have been the princess’ 50th birthday.
While Di certainly led a fascinating and turbulent existence, three films about seems a bit excessive. Still, I’m curious to see how each one would approach the subject, especially since they cover different portions of her life.
Who do you think should play Diana?