@rooprect said:

I didn't like this movie because I thought it took a very cartoonish approach to the otherwise complex tangle of British history. This movie makes it clear who it deems are the good guys & the bad guys, and it rewrites history to drive its opinion home. Especially since the good guys win. (What a coincidence! )

But my question isn't about that, unless anyone feels like discussing it. What I'm wondering is how an unknown, inexperienced director got so much money and so many incredible actors on this project. Before this, his only credits were 2 forgotten Bollywood flicks in the 80s, then one Bollywood hit in '95 (Bandit Queen which I hadn't heard of). And suddenly he's directing the likes of Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Richard Attenborough, John Gielgud, with a budget of $30 million in 1998 dollars which is about $60m today.

I checked this movie's wikipeda & the director's, trying to get the story on how someone so obscure could suddenly rise to the top. But I can't find a peep. Anyone have the scoop on that?

Connections. As the nephew of Dev Anand, he is well known in Bollywood. Working Title Films is one of the production companies, and the co-chairmen Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner were looking for a director like Shekhar Kapur, who filmed " Bandit Queen (1995)", and would dare to make "Elizabeth (1998)" different from other biopics.

By the way, before this film Cate Blanchett was an unknown actress, and after that everyone knew her name. She received her first Oscar nomination for this film, and won the BAFTA and Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress.

@wonder2wonder said:

@rooprect said:

I didn't like this movie because I thought it took a very cartoonish approach to the otherwise complex tangle of British history. This movie makes it clear who it deems are the good guys & the bad guys, and it rewrites history to drive its opinion home. Especially since the good guys win. (What a coincidence! )

But my question isn't about that, unless anyone feels like discussing it. What I'm wondering is how an unknown, inexperienced director got so much money and so many incredible actors on this project. Before this, his only credits were 2 forgotten Bollywood flicks in the 80s, then one Bollywood hit in '95 (Bandit Queen which I hadn't heard of). And suddenly he's directing the likes of Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Richard Attenborough, John Gielgud, with a budget of $30 million in 1998 dollars which is about $60m today.

I checked this movie's wikipeda & the director's, trying to get the story on how someone so obscure could suddenly rise to the top. But I can't find a peep. Anyone have the scoop on that?

Connections. As the nephew of Dev Anand, he is well known in Bollywood. Working Title Films is one of the production companies, and the co-chairmen Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner were looking for a director like Shekhar Kapur, who filmed " Bandit Queen (1995)", and would dare to make "Elizabeth (1998)" different from other biopics.

By the way, before this film Cate Blanchett was an unknown actress, and after that everyone knew her name. She received her first Oscar nomination for this film, and won the BAFTA and Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress.

Maybe to you! She was well known in her home country, Australia. I remember her from 'Oscar & Lucinda'.

https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/39780-oscar-and-lucinda

@bratface said:

@wonder2wonder said:

By the way, before this film Cate Blanchett was an unknown actress, and after that everyone knew her name. She received her first Oscar nomination for this film, and won the BAFTA and Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress.

Maybe to you! She was well known in her home country, Australia. I remember her from 'Oscar & Lucinda'.

https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/39780-oscar-and-lucinda

I meant that she was unknown to the general audience, because then she had appeared mostly in Australian productions. I've watched a lot of Australian televesion series, e.g. " Neighbours (1985-)", "The Flying Doctors (1986-1992)", "Round the Twist (1990-2001)", and I know her from "Heartland (1994)", where coincidentally she also played a character named Elizabeth.

It's good that you mentioned "Oscar and Lucinda (1997)", because Cate Blanchett's outstanding performance in that film, got her noticed by Shekhar Kapur.

I'm still waiting for the adaptation of "Larklight" that Shekhar Kapur left.

@M.LeMarchand said:

I'm still waiting for the adaptation of "Larklight" that Shekhar Kapur left.

That's going to be a long wait. He seems to have moved on to other projects.

@wonder2wonder said:

That's going to be a long wait. He seems to have moved on to other projects.

Author Philip Reeve doesn't seem to have much luck. As well as the above in the mid-teens Laika announced and seem to have forgotten about "Goblins" while Doug Liman was announced, pre-publication, for "Railhead" which seems stuck on the platform. The one that actually made it to the screens ("Mortal Engines") failed to find an audience .