Young Victoria Joins Apparition’s Throne

Something tells me that Bob Berney and Bill Pohlad have a couple of more tricks, or should I say, titles up their sleeves. Today they announced the inclusion of Quebecois filmmaker Jean Marc Vallee’s period drama to Apparition’s inaugural slate. The 30-million dollar period pic, shot in the U.K., preemed at Berlin’s film market and will show at TIFF next month as the festival’s closing film. The Young Victoria will open November 13th, and unless some other title is programmed between them, it would make it back to back “period” pics (or storylines that took place 100 plus years ago) with Bright Star.  

Scripted by Julian Fellowes, this will focus on the first, often turbulent, years of the monarch’s rule — she became queen at 18 — and her legendary romance and marriage to Prince Albert. Devastated by her husband’s death in 1861, she wore black for the rest of her life and remained largely secluded. Emily Blunt stars as Victoria and Rupert Friend as Albert. Paul Bettany, Miranda Richardson, Jim Broadbent, Thomas Kretschmann and Mark Strong

We can say that Vallee blasted onto the international scene with C.R.A.Z.Y. The very grown up, coming-of-age pic featuring a soundtrack with Pink Floyd, David Bowie and The Rolling Stones was the filmmaker’s calling card of sorts catching the eye of the likes of Martin Scorsese. Despite international accolades and recognition could was simply too expensive for any U.S. distributor to pick up.

The press release mentions that Berney added will commence with a “fairly aggressive” platform release on 25 or 30 screens, adding a couple hundred screens quickly after.