Empire is a jaded and cynical old sort. It takes a lot to boggle our minds. But today we heard news that managed to not only boggle our minds, but drop our jaws and raise our eyebrows – for Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II has announced plans, at the ripe old age of 68, to write a screenplay.
OK, it’s only for a short film, but still, it’s quite the left-turn for the monarch, who has reigned since January 1972. Clearly she’s a little bored with walkabouts, meeting dignitaries and other Queenly duties. But she has form in this department, having provided a voiceover for Jesper W. Nielsen’s animated short, The Snow Queen.
And she’s teaming up with Nielsen again for this new short, which is none more Danish, given that it’s based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, The Wild Swans which, to continue the Royal connection, is about a princess who must save her brothers after they are turned into swans by her evil stepmother.
Who knows where this will end? Will royalty over here catch the screenwriting bug from Queen Margrethe? Before the year is out, will Prince Charles announce plans to write The Happening II? Will Camilla sign off on a remake of National Velvet? Will Prince Andrew attach himself, like a limpet, to the remake of Emmannuelle?
Readers, over to you and your overactive imaginations.