Judi Dench was nominated for an Oscar and took home a BAFTA the first time she played Queen Victoria on screen for 1997's Mrs. Brown. It looks like she's planning to make playing the royal icon something she fits into her schedule every 20 years, this time for Stephen Frears' Victoria And Abdul.
Lee Hall has written the script, which follows Abdul Karim, a clerk who makes the trip to India to be a part of the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 1887 and finds himself forming a bond with Her Majesty. As the Queen struggles with the requirements of her rule, she finds a new lease of life through this friendship.
Working Title is aboard this one, which Hall developed with Beeban Kidron, Cross Street Films and BBC Films, and Frears should have the cameras rolling this year, for a 2017 release. Can Dench win more awards as Victoria? That'll depend on the role and the film, we suppose...
Dench will next be seen in Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children, which is out here on September 30.