QE2 Launched

1998 was a good year for the first Queen Elizabeth. Not only was her reign remembered fondly in Shakespeare In Love, but two actresses were nominated for Oscars for their portrayal of Good Queen Bess. Judi Dench landed Best Supporting Actress for her scene-stealing turn, but Cate Blanchett's more sustained performance was equally good in the title role of Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth. Now the director has announced that he plans to make a sequel to the Oscar-nominated biopic, with Blanchett again expected to take the throne. The film is currently titled Golden Age, and will tell the tale of Elizabeth's middle years on the throne. "It is about the battle between her life as a monarch and her personal life," Kapur said. "It ends in the destruction of the Spanish Armada on the larger level." Well, it all makes sense to us. Queen Elizabeth was one of history's largest characters, and certainly deserves a good look at her most successful years on the throne after she had firmly established herself (as we saw in the original Kapur film) and before she descended into bitterness and age (as we saw in Dench's wickedly funny performance). We're also hoping for a good look at the battle against the Spanish Armada, and we wouldn't be entirely surprised if a certain Queen of Scots was involved there somewhere. The script should be ready in six months, but the start date depends on the schedules of director and star. Kapur is also working on an adaptation of Nelson Mandela's autobiography Long Walk to Freedom and on Isaac Asimov's classic Foundation trilogy, while Cate Blanchett is soon to appear in Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic and Martin Scorsese's The Aviator. Let's hope that she can find time for merrie olde Englande in between all of that.