Olivia Colman’s trajectory from the long-suffering girlfriend of the neurotic Mark in Peep Show to one of the most celebrated actors of the moment looks set to be confirmed by a role as Queen Anne in Yorgos Lanthimos’s forthcoming film The Favourite.
Deadline reports that Colman, Emma Stone and Kate Winslet are in talks to play the three female leads in a film about machinations in the British Queen’s court.
The film traces the waxing and waning of influence in Anne’s circle of confidantes. Colman will star as the Queen, Winslet will play her close friend Sarah Churchill, and Stone will take the role of Abigail Masham, who came from a humble background and eventually usurped Churchill in Anne’s affections. Masham and Anne are also rumoured to have had an affair.
Anne’s reign, from 1702-14, has barely been explored by film-makers, but Lanthimos is unafraid of offbeat subjects. A Greek director based in London, his first English language film The Lobster got enthusiastic reviews at Cannes this year. It is set in a bizarre hotel where single people are taken to be partnered – or else to be turned into animals.
