Awards Season Hopeful MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS Release Date Set For Friday, December 7, 2018

Ian Hart stars as Lord Maitland, Jack Lowden as Lord Darnley, Saoirse Ronan as Mary Stuart and James McArdle as Earl of Moray in MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, a Focus Features release.Credit: Liam Daniel / Focus Features

Focus Features will release Working Title’s MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS on Friday, December 7, 2018 – limited in North America.  Previously having been set for November 2, 2018, the new date places the movie in prime Oscar season contention.

Focus Features launched a successful Oscar campaign earlier this year with two celebrated films from 2017.

DARKEST HOUR, starring Academy Award winner Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill, received six nominations and went onto win statuettes for Best Actor and Achievement in makeup and hairstyling, while PHANTOM THREAD, also garnering six nominations and starring Daniel Day Lewis, took home the Oscar for Achievement in costume design (Mark Bridges).

Saoirse Ronan as Mary Stuart in MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, a Focus Features release.Credit: John Mathieson / Focus Features

MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS stars Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie. Both were Best Actress nominees at the 90th Oscars. Ronan was nominated for LADY BIRD and Robbie for I, TONYA. The upcoming awards season could very well see a repeat for both actresses. The 1971 historical drama MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, featured Glenda Jackson as Elizabeth I and Vanessa Redgrave as Mary, Queen of Scots.  While Redgrave saw an Oscar nod for the doomed queen, both actresses received Golden Globe nominations. (Trailer)

Jack Lowden, Joe Alwyn, Gemma Chan, Martin Compston, Ismael Cordova, Brendan Coyle, Ian Hart, Adrian Lester, James McArdle, with David Tennant, and Guy Pearce also star in MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.

From director Josie Rourke (artistic director of The Donmar Warehouse), the film explores the turbulent life of the charismatic Mary Stuart. Queen of France at 16 and widowed at 18, Mary defies pressure to remarry. Instead, she returns to her native Scotland to reclaim her rightful throne. But Scotland and England fall under the rule of the compelling Elizabeth I. Each young Queen beholds her “sister” in fear and fascination. Rivals in power and in love, and female regents in a masculine world, the two must decide how to play the game of marriage versus independence. Determined to rule as much more than a figurehead, Mary asserts her claim to the English throne, threatening Elizabeth’s sovereignty. Betrayal, rebellion, and conspiracies within each court imperil both thrones – and change the course of history.

MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS is from writer Beau Willimon (“The Ides of March,” “House of Cards”) and based on My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots by John Guy.

Grace Molony stars as Dorothy Stafford, Margot Robbie stars as Queen Elizabeth I and Georgia Burnell as Kate Carey in MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, a Focus Features release. Credit: Parisa Tag / Focus Features