David Seidler and Tom Hooper have proved to be a potent pairing, having written and directed the Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-sweeping biopic The King’s Speech, which centers on King George VI’s struggles to overcome his cripplingly speech impediment. While Hooper is known for docudramas, like 2009’s The Damned United, Seidler’s filmography is peppered with tales of royalty like Soraya and the animated King and I. Considering these predilections, it’s little wonder that the pair are rumored to be re-teaming on a biopic of Lady Hester Stanhope, a historical figure who Seidler described to the Screen Daily as, “a female Lawrence of Arabia.”
Based on the biography Star of the Morning: The Extraordinary Life of Lady Hester Stanhope by Kirsten Ellis, the film titled The Lady Who Went Too Far would unravel the globetrotting escapades of this “willful beauty turned bohemian adventurer.” Stanhope, who was later called “the Queen of the East,” was born in England in 1776, and served as a figurative first lady and loyal secretary to her uncle, Prime Minister Pitt. This made her a woman of note and notoriety in her native land, but after the death of her uncle, she set off to make history, trekking through Europe to the Middle East. From there her story includes dressing in drag, treasure hunting, and omens that she believed marked her as the future bride of a new messiah. So basically there is plenty of fodder for an epic and grandiose biopic.
Ellis, the book’s author, had this to say of the proposed adaptation, “Hers is a very powerful story that’s never been told cinematically before…She’s an undiscovered iconic emblem and the film will lift the lid on what made Hester spend half her life in the Middle East and what she tried to achieve there.”
Backed by The King’s Speech producer Gareth Unwin, the film could go into production by the end of this year with a budget of $18 million–or $3 mil more than the estimated budget of The King’s Speech—meaning we could be seeing this TKS trio in two years time re-mastering the award season circus.
Are you interested in this proposed biopic? Have you read Star of Morning? Do you think Hooper, Unwin and Seidler are a good fit for the material?