EXCLUSIVE: Focus Features will release Stephen Frears‘ Victoria And Abdul — the film that reunites the director with his Philomena star Judi Dench — on September 22, 2017 in a limited run before rolling it out the following weekend. The film, which also stars Bollywood actor Ali Fazal (Happy Bhaag Jayegi, Furious 7), is a true story about the friendship between a young clerk from India and Queen Victoria (Dench).
Adapted by Lee Hall from Shrabani Basu’s book Victoria & Abdul: The True Story Of The Queen’s Closest Confidante, the movie also stars Eddie Izzard. Working Title is producing the pic, which was developed by Beeban Kidron and Lee Hall at Cross Street Films with BBC Films. Kidron, Tracey Seaward (The Queen) and Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are producing.
When the clerk travels from India to participate in the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, he is surprised to find favor with the Queen herself. As she questions the constrictions of her long-held position, the two forge an unlikely and devoted alliance with a loyalty to one another that her household and inner circle attempt to destroy. As the friendship deepens, the Queen begins to see a changing world through new eyes and joyfully reclaims her humanity.
There is nothing slated on the release calendar in limited release on the late September date, though Lionsgate has placed its action-drama Granite Mountain to go wide at the same time.
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