My word, how gorgeous does Elizabeth: The Golden Age look? So gorgeous, practically every frame from the trailer could be blown up and used as wallpaper.
The long-in-the-coming follow-up to 1998’s Elizabeth, the movie that put Cate Blanchett on the international and Oscar radar, brings the Virgin Queen back to cinematic glory as the story picks up with her in full reign.
Cate, Geoffrey Rush and director Shekhar Kapur return for this most unlikely yet somehow most natural of sequels. Joining them are Clive Owen (as Sir Walter Raleigh), Samantha Morton (as Mary Stuart) and newcomer Abbie Cornish (as Elizabeth’s lady-in-waiting).
But, as it should be, the magnificent Cate is the brilliant star around which the lesser planets revolve. How magnificent? Cate in a suit of armor. Cate screaming that she can “command the wind.” Cate being bathed by her lady-in-waiting. I’m feeling tingly all over.
The historical drama finds Queen Elizabeth I facing treachery from both home and abroad as the Spanish King Philip II and his armada threaten to restore England to Catholicism. Luckily for her, this time they do expect the Spanish Inquisition. (Ah, Monty Python puns – they never get old.)
After seeing both the newest trailer and the previously released international trailer (above), I am ready for a serious throwdown between Cate and Jodie Foster this coming Oscar season. What? If the presidential race can begin 494 days early, what’s a couple months’ jump start for the Academy Awards?
