Since he started the casting process, The Lobster's Yorgos Lanthimos has seen the Oscar-owning count among his actors for royal drama The Favourite boosted by one, thanks to Emma Stone's victory this past weekend. He's still adding people to the film, with Nicholas Hoult nabbing a role.
Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara have written the script, which will see Olivia Colman crowned as Queen Anne, final monarch of the Stuarts, who ruled between 1702 and 1714 (monarchs generally didn’t get to sit on the throne as long as Liz has). Rachel Weisz is set as Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, one of her majesty’s closest confidents, while Stone is playing Abigail Masham, a poverty-stricken distant relative of Sarah’s, who is suddenly granted a position at court tending to the Queen, resulting in a shifting balance of power between the courtiers.
Hoult will play Robert Harley, who led the Tory party during the time of Anne and served as Lord High Treasurer during her reign.
Lanthimos' latest, The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, should be out this year. As for Hoult, he has Iraq War drama Sand Castle awaiting release and recently finished work as Nikola Tesla in The Current War.