While The Crown has yet to reach the Diana years on the small screen, we've already had a couple of films about the life of Lady Diana Spencer, AKA The Princess Of Wales and her troubled time with the royal family. But while the likes of Diana didn't exact fare well with critics or audiences, Jackie__ and Ema director Pablo Larraín is hoping for better luck with Spencer, which has Kristen Stewart on board to star.
While you might expect Peter Morgan to have had a hand, Steven Knight actually wrote this one, chronicling a critical weekend in the early 1990s when Diana decided her marriage to Prince Charles wasn't working and she decided to leave the Royal Family even as she spent a Christmas holiday at Sandringham.
"We all grew up, at least I did in my generation, reading and understanding what a fairy tale is," Larraín tells Deadline. "Usually, the prince comes and finds the princess, invites her to become his wife and eventually she becomes queen. That is the fairy tale. 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.
"How and why do you decide to do that? It’s a great universal story that can reach millions and millions of people, and that’s what we want to do. We want to make a movie that goes wide, connects with a worldwide audience that is interested in such a fascinating life."
Stewart might be one of the few people in the world who understands the glare of the spotlight and expectations given her own stardom post-Twilight. So chances are this is something she can dig into. Larrain is looking to kick off shooting early next year.