Dame Judi Dench is no stranger to playing royalty, and now she will step back into familiar shoes: Queen Victoria.
Dench is slated to play the forlorn queen again in Victoria and Abdul. She previously played her in Mrs. Brown, and she received an Oscar nomination for the part.
Stephen Frears will direct. The filmmaker has his own royal connections, getting an Academy Award nomination for The Queen. He also directed Dench in Philomena, which was nominated for best picture and Dench for best actress.
Victoria and Abdul is based on the real life friendship between Queen Victoria and a clerk from India who comes to England for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. The film is expected to go into production this year with a release set for 2017.
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