Off With Her Head! Noyce to Direct Mary, Queen of Scots

Come on, I know you’re not going to keep reading if I put up a picture of Phillip Noyce.

Variety is reporting that Phillip Noyce is taking on directing duties for Mary Queen of Scots (Variety’s not putting a comma after Mary, so I guess I better not either), which will star Scarlett Johansson as the famous-for-being-beheaded queen. This follows her turn as Mary Boleyn, who is semi-famous for being the sister of a famous-for-being-beheaded queen. Surely we can expect, some years down the road, to report casting news that Ms. Johansson is playing the mother of Katherine Howard, another famous for…well, you know.

The Scottish Queen has long been a beloved figure of pop culture, generating operas, plays, song cycles, and movies in her name. She’s been played by Katherine Hepburn on film and Janet McTeer onstage. No word on what part of her life this film is concentrating on. Mary was 44 when she died, and I think we all would rather not see Scarlett try to portray her at that age.

Noyce, of course, has a lengthy resume; his most recent films are The Quiet American and Rabbit-Proof Fence, which aren’t very recent actually (2002 for both), but he’s also apparently been doing some TV, including episodes of the Showtime drama Brotherhood.

(btw, in the race to cover as many centuries as possible via costume dramas, Keira still has you beat, Scarlett)