EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a first look at Alicia Vikander’s turn as Katherine Parr in the Cannes-bound Firebrand.
Gabrielle Tana’s Brouhaha Entertainment has released the first-look photo of the Ex Machina star in costume for Brazilian helmer Karim Ainouz’s first English-language film. See it below.
Alicia Vikander plays opposite Jude Law (The Talented Mr. Ripley, Captain Marvel), who plays a scheming Henry VIII. Our exclusive photo shows Vikander with the ladies of her bedchamber, who are played by Ruby Bentall (Poldark), Bryony Hannah (Call The Midwife) and Maia Jemmett.
A screening date hasn’t been officially set yet but it’s strongly rumoured that Firebrand will premiere at the Palais des Festivals on Sunday, May 21. FilmNation will be shopping on the Croisette.
Both Tana (Philomena, The Dig, The Invisible Woman) and Ainouz (The Invisible Life of Eurydice Gusmao, Love for Sale, Futuro Beach) describe Firebrand as a “psychological thriller” that explores how Katherine, the last of Henry’s six wives, endured her union with the monstrous monarch and kept her head in the 16th Century.
The movie, filmed on location in the Derbyshire region of the UK’s Peak District, is based on Elizabeth Fremantle’s gripping, bestselling historical novel Queen’s Gambit, about how Katherine strategized to survive.
However, the title was changed to Firebrand to avoid confusion with popular Netflix drama The Queen’s Gambit, which stars Anya Taylor-Joy as a chess master.
Tana said Firebrand is not a “romanticized’ film about a royal marriage. “Henry’s a butcher,” she added. “It was a rotten marriage. There’s usually pomp and circumstance [in royal couplings] but that’s not really what was there. It was much more visceral, and that’s what we’re getting to the heart of.”
There will be some surprises in the film, she added, because “history is open for lots of different interpretation.”
