66 CinÉireann / January 2018
DIR: HAIFAA AL MONSOUR
PRO: PARELLEL FILMS
MARY SHELLEY
Another of the major releases this year which has been backed by the Irish Film Board is Haifaa Al-Mansour's Mary Shelley, a biopic of Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, co-produced by Parallel Films (Brooklyn). The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
Teenager Mary dreams of writing but has yet to find inspiration. When she meets poet Percy Shelley, it is love at first sight. But Percy has his secrets, he is married with a child. Setting up home together, Mary soon becomes pregnant with Percy’s child, a daughter who tragically dies. Ostracised by polite society and grieving for their child, they escape from London and Percy introduces Mary to Lord Byron at his house in Lake Geneva. On a stormy night, Byron suggests they all write a ghost story. Mary gives birth to Frankenstein’s Monster. It is brilliant, but women don’t write books, and publishers won’t print them. And so Mary fights for her creature and her identity, all at the age of eighteen.
The film stars Elle Fanning as Mary and Douglas Booth as Percy, alongside Maisie Williams, Bel Powley, Joanne Froggatt and Tom Sturridge, and Stephen Dillane. Al-Mansour directs from a script co-written with Emma Jensen and Conor McPherson. Alan Moloney and Ruth Coady produce for Parallel Films, with Amy Baer of Gidden Media. DoP is David Ungaro, Production Design comes from the legendary Paki Smith, and Room's Nathan Nugent edits with Alex Mackie.
Funding for Mary Shelley came from the Irish Film Board, the BFI, Hanway Films, the Luxembourg Film Fund, Ingenious Media, and Sobini Films.
Curzon Artificial Eye will release in Ireland and the UK.