Mary Shelley — Trailer

added: Thu, Apr 12th '18

Elle Fanning (The Beguiled, The Neon Demon) channels heartache into Gothic art in the newly-released trailer for "Mary Shelley," the upcoming British period drama about how 18-year-old novelist Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin used her troubled love affair with poet Percy Bysshe Shelley as the inspiration for her literary masterpiece "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus."

Fanning stars as the titular Frankenstein author, who would later be referred to as the mother of Gothic fiction. While Douglas Booth (Noah, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) plays Mary's sweetheart, poet/philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley who is the man she would eventually marry after a controversial and scandalous courtship.

Bel Powley (The Diary of a Teenage Girl) also co-stars in the film as Mary's step-sister Claire Clairmont, who is one of the first people to encourage Mary to get her Frankenstein story publish.

Additionally, the cast includes Far from the Madding Crowd's Tom Sturridge, former "Downton Abbey" star Joanne Froggatt, and "Game of Thrones" actors Maisie Williams and Stephen Dillane.

"Mary Shelley" is the first English-language film from Saudi Arabian director Haifaa Al-Mansour, who previously made her feature film debut with 2012's acclaimed daughter-mother drama "Wadjda," which was not only the first feature movie to be shot entirely in Saudi Arabia, but also the first ever to be directed by a female Saudi filmmaker.

Written by newcomer Emma Jensen with additional writing by Al-Mansour, "Mary Shelley" is slated for a theatrical release on May 25th and then VOD on June 1st.

synopsis:
She will forever be remembered as the writer who gave the world Frankenstein. But the real life story of Mary Shelley -- and the creation of her immortal monster—is nearly as fantastical as her fiction.

Raised by a renowned philosopher father (Stephen Dillane) in 18th-century London, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (Elle Fanning) is a teenage dreamer determined to make her mark on the world when she meets the dashing and brilliant poet Percy Shelley (Douglas Booth). So begins a torrid, bohemian love affair marked by both passion and personal tragedy that will transform Mary and fuel the writing of her Gothic masterwork. Imbued with the imaginative spirit of its heroine, Mary Shelley brings to life the world of a trailblazing woman who defied convention and channeled her innermost demons into a legend for the ages.

directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour

starring Elle Fanning, Douglas Booth, Bel Powley, Joanne Froggatt, Maisie Williams, Tom Sturridge, Stephen Dillane, Ben Hardy

release date May 25, 2018 (in theaters), June 1, 218 (on VOD)