Joni Mitchell said it best when she said, “They paved paradise and built a parking lot.” But what if they paved over the grave of a long-dead, disgraced king or queen instead of paradise? The upcoming IFC movie The Lost King is based on this idea. It’s about a woman’s quest to find out where a long-misunderstood historical figure was buried. The movie is set to come out on March 24, and a new trailer just came out, giving us a sneak peek at what it will be like.
Philippa Langley’s 2013 book The King’s Grave: The Search for Richard III is what The Lost King is based on. The upcoming movie tells the story of Philippa’s search for where King Richard III was buried. King Richard III was the last member of the House of Plantagenet. When he died in 1485, the House of Tudor took over. Richard has been portrayed as a bad guy in books and plays for over 500 years. He is only remembered for being bad, and even the place where he was buried has been lost to time. This could be because the Tudors wanted the media to show the former king in a bad light. This is probably the case. Writers of the Tudor era, like William Shakespeare, made Richard III look like a bad guy in their historical plays. These books would shape how people thought about the king for hundreds of years.
But at least for some people, these bad ideas about King Richard III didn’t make sense. And this is true of Philippa Langley, who Sally Hawkins plays. After seeing a live performance of Shakespeare’s Richard III, Philippa Langley defends the historical bad guy. Philippa watches the play at the beginning of the trailer. After that, she pokes at the idea that his evil nature is linked to his physical problems. Philippa has been haunted by a vision of Richard III ever since she saw that fateful Shakespeare play. This vision follows her through her hard and often boring life. She finds comfort in the fact that his reputation has been tarnished for a long time. After searching, she finds friends in a group of history buffs who are also determined to set his reputation straight. The trailer then shows Philippa’s main goal: finding King Richard III’s grave. Surprisingly, she could do this when the king’s grave was found under a parking lot.
Stephen Frears is responsible for making the movie, and Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope wrote the script. Coogan is also in the film. Harry Lloyd is the one who plays the ghost of King Richard III.
On March 24, The Lost King will be shown in theaters.
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