Historical Movies to Look Forward to in 2010

Pope Joan (Die Päpstin in German)
has already been released in Germany

Russell Crowe on the set of
Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood

Helen Mirren on the set of
Julie Taymor’s The Tempest

December brings a few highly-anticipated historical movies; I just saw an early screening of The Young Victoria with a friend last night, and I can’t wait to see Nine (12/18) and Sherlock Holmes (12/25) later this month! And Amelia comes to DVD on 2/2…so much to look forward to in 2010!

Coming to theaters in 2010:

King Lear
Starring: Al Pacino
Director: Michael Radford
Time Period: 8th Century BC
Shakepeare’s classic tale of an aging king who splits up his kingdom for his three daughters to govern, but is misled about their affections, and driven into exile. (IMDb)

Pope Joan
Starring: Johanna Wokalek. David Wenham, and John Goodman
Director: Sönke Wortmann
Time Period: 9th Century BC
A 9th century woman of English extraction born in the German city of Ingelheim disguises herself as a man and rises through the Vatican ranks. Based on the bestselling novel by Donna Woolfolk Cross. (IMDb)

Robin Hood
Starring: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, William Hurt, Mark Addy
Director: Ridley Scott
Time Period: 12th Century
The story of how an archer in the service of King Richard the Lionheart became to be known as Robin Hood, the famous archer and outlaw of English Folklore. Beginning after the Death of King Richard at the Siege of Chalus Chabrol, the film follows Robin on his rise to infamy among the English Barons and the newly crowned King John. Featuring historically accurate characters such as Sir William Marshall and grounded in reality (in a similar way to Gladiator), this is not Robin Hood as you have seen him before, rather the making of the legend we have come to know him as now. (IMDb)

Ironclad
Starring: Paul Giamatti, James Purefoy, Brian Cox, Mackenzie Crook, Jason Flemyng, Derek Jacobi, Kate Mara, Jamie Foreman, William Moseley
Director: Jonathan English
Time Period: Early 13th Century
It is the year 1215 and the rebel barons of England have forced their despised King John to put his royal seal to the Magna Carta, a noble, seminal document that upheld the rights of free-men. Yet within months of pledging himself to the great charter, the King reneged on his word and assembled a mercenary army on the south coast of England with the intention of bringing the barons and the country back under his tyrannical rule. Barring his way stood the mighty Rochester castle, a place that would become the symbol of the rebel’s momentous struggle for justice and freedom. (IMDb)

The Tempest
Starring: Helen Mirren, Felicity Jones, Jeremy Irons, Djimon Hounsou
Director: Julie Taymor
Time Period: 17th Century
A cross-gendered version of the play by William Shakespeare involving forces of feminine magic, nature and mysticism. (The New York Times)

Wuthering Heights
Starring: Gemma Arterton and Ed Westwick
Director: Peter Webber
Time Period: Early 19th Century
A poor young English boy named Heathcliff is taken in by the wealthy Earnshaw family where he develops an intense relationship with his young foster sister, Cathy. Based on the classic novel by Emily Brontë. (IMDb)

Al Pacino is set to play the title
role in King Lear, and Napoleon in
Betsy and the Emperor

Betsy and the Emperor
Starring: Al Pacino, Emma Watson
Director: John Curran
Time Period: 19th Century
Having just returned home from boarding school in London, 14-year-old Betsy Balcombe feels bored and trapped at her home on the remote island home of St. Helena. However, all that changes when she meets Napoleon Bonaparte, who is exiled on the island after his capture at Waterloo. It doesn’t take long for Betsy to befriend the former emperor of France, as the two of them race horses and practice waltz steps, in what would become one of history’s most unlikely friendships. (The New York Times)

The Conspirator
Starring: James McAvoy, Robin Wright Penn, Evan Rachel Wood, Justin Long
Director: Robert Redford
Time Period: 19th Century
In the wake of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, seven men and one woman are arrested and charged with conspiring to kill the President, Vice-President, and Secretary of State. The lone woman charged, Mary Surratt, 42, owns a boarding house where John Wilkes Booth and others met and planned the simultaneous attacks. Against the ominous back-drop of post-Civil War Washington, newly-minted lawyer, Frederick Aiken, a 28-year-old Union war-hero, reluctantly agrees to defend Surratt before a military tribunal. Aiken realizes his client may be innocent and that she is being used as bait and hostage in order to capture the only conspirator to have escaped a massive manhunt: her own son. (IMDb)

The Last Station
Starring: Christopher Plummer, Helen Mirren, James McAvoy, Paul Giamatti, Anne-Marie Duff
Director: Michael Hoffman
Time Period: 19th Century
A historical drama that illustrates Russian author Leo Tolstoy’s struggle to balance fame and wealth with his commitment to a life devoid of material things. The Countess Sofya (Mirren), wife and muse to Leo Tolstoy (Plummer), uses every trick of seduction on her husband’s loyal disciple (McAvoy), whom she believes was the person responsible for Tolstoy signing a new will that leaves his work and property to the Russian people. (IMDb)

Creation
Starring: Paul Bettany, Jennifer Connelly, Toby Jones, Jeremy Northam, Benedict Cumberbatch
Director: Jon Amiel
Time Period: 19th Century
What happens when a world-renowned scientist, crushed by the loss of his eldest daughter, formulates a theory in conflict with religious dogma? This is the story of Charles Darwin and his master-work “The Origin of Species”. It tells of a global revolution played out the confines of a small English village; a passionate marriage torn apart by the most dangerous idea in history; and a theory saved from extinction by the logic of a child. (IMDb)

The Beautiful and the Damned
Starring: Kiera Knightly as Zelda
Director: John Curran
Time Period: 1920s
The true story of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald whose romance is synonymous with the myth of the Jazz Age: the carousing literary genius and his eccentric muse, who went notoriously mad. This is the story behind the myth–of their lifelong love affair, with all its turbulence and passion–in which their words were so shared and borrowed, their mania so mutually fed, that in the end the genius of the one and the madness of the other were one and the same: a “folie à deux.” (IMDb)

The King’s Speech
Starring: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter
Director: Tom Hooper
Time Period: 20th Century
George VI, also known as Bertie, reluctantly takes the throne of England when his brother, Edward, abdicates in 1936. The unprepared king turns to a radical speech therapist, Lionel Logue, to help overcome his nervous stutter and the two forge a friendship. (The New York Times)

Nowhere Boy
Starring: Kristin Scott Thomas, Anne-Marie Duff, Aaron Johnson, Thomas Sangster, David Morrissey
Director: Sam Taylor-Wood
Time Period: mid-20th Century
Nowhere Boy, the debut feature of Sam Taylor-Wood, tells the never seen before story of John Lennon’s childhood. Imagine John Lennon’s childhood — A spirited teenager, curious, sharp and funny, growing up in the war shattered city of Liverpool in dreary post-war Britain. Two extraordinary sisters tussle for his love – Mimi, the formidable aunt who raised him from the age of 5, and Julia, the spirited mother who gave him up to Mimi’s care. Yearning for a normal family, John escapes into art and the new music flooding in from the US. His fledgling genius finds a kindred spirit in the young Paul McCartney. But just as John’s new life begins, the truth about his past leads to a tragedy he would never escape. (IMDb)

Alice in Wonderland
Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Matt Lucas, Johnny Depp, Michael Sheen, Anne Hathaway
Director: Tim Burton
19-year-old Alice returns to the magical world from her childhood adventure, where she reunites with her old friends and learns of her true destiny: to end the Red Queen’s reign of terror. (IMDb)

Clash of the Titans
Starring: Sam Worthington, Gemma Arterton, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes
Director: Louis Leterrier
Zeus’ son, Perseus journey’s to save Princess Andromeda during which he must complete various tasks set out by Zeus, including capturing Pegasus and slaying Medusa. (The New York Times

What’s currently in the works for 2011: Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (read my review of the book), Cleopatra, Brontë, Emma and Nelson, Queen Kristina, Excaliber, Agincourt, 1776, Jane Eyre, and The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.