As revealed by Deadline, Michelle Williams and Jude Law have signed on to star in Firebrand, a period psychological horror-thriller film from Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz and screenwriters Jessica Ashworth and Henrietta Ashworth (Killing Eve).
The film will see Williams playing Catherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of England’s notorious King Henry VIII (Law), and ” is told through Catherine’s singular point-of-view of the psychological horror of living with a monster—and the remarkable will to not only survive, but thrive.”
“This a woman who deserves a portrait,” director Aïnouz told Deadline. “There has been much depicted on the king and the wives that perished. It’s important to look at someone who turns out to be stronger than the forces around them. This is a modernistic look at the classic trope of the woman trapped in a castle with a monster”
“Henry was a most interesting person, but he was uber-violent, which was in tune with the timesm,” Aïnouz continues. “Jude will not play him as the clichéd fat man eating the turkey leg. Jude got how complex this guy was, not a loveable character but as a most powerful man of his time. And Michelle immediately came to mind. I so admire her choices, going back to Brokeback Mountain, and there is something fascinating about her each time I rediscover her in a performance.”
Williams can currently be seen in cinemas alongside Tom Hardy in Venom: Let There Be Carnage, while Jude Law has been busy shooting Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, along with Disney’s live-action Peter Pan where he plays Captain Hook.
