From C.R.A.Z.Y. to the crown

• Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
• Writer: Julian Fellowes
• Producers: Graham King, Martin Scorsese, Tim Headington, Sarah Ferguson
• Production company: GK Films
• Key cast: Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Paul Bettany, Miranda Richardson, Jim Broadbent
• International co-venture: U.S./U.K. co-venture
• Distributors: Alliance Films (Canada), Apparition (U.S.)
• International sales: Initial Entertainment Group
• Budget: US$35 Million

Hands up anyone who imagined Jean-Marc Vallée’s follow-up to the gritty Quebec coming-of-age flick C.R.A.Z.Y. would be anything resembling the love story of a 19th century British monarch. That unlikely film, The Young Victoria, will lower the curtain on TIFF 2009 as the Closing Night Gala.

The period drama focuses on the courtship of Queen Victoria (played by The Devil Wears Prada’s Emily Blunt) and her cousin and soul mate, Prince Albert (Pride & Prejudice’s Rupert Friend).

‘I’m looking for different challenges from one film to the other,’ Vallée explains. ‘It was just good timing. It was the best shooting experience of my life.’

After the success of C.R.A.Z.Y., which took in some 50 international awards and more than $6 million at the Canadian box office, the filmmaker was mulling over his next project when Nathan Ross, his Los Angeles agent at ICM, handed him the script by actor-turned-writer Julian Fellowes, who won an Oscar for his Gosford Park script.

The screenplay takes some liberties in telling the story of Victoria’s 1837 ascension to the throne at age 18, her youthful missteps, a botched assassination attempt, and, finally, her marriage to Albert.

‘Of course it’s so far away from a middle-class French-Canadian family, but we’re all human,’ Vallée notes. ‘Even royal families have their issues. There’s a link to C.R.A.Z.Y. with the family relationships and this young girl having to assume her destiny and accept her fate and feeling different and wanting to do good, just like the main character in C.R.A.Z.Y. So I wasn’t totally off in new territory.’

Producers on the US$35 million U.S./U.K. co-venture include Graham King of Hollywood’s GK Films and Martin Scorsese – the two collaborated on Oscar winner The Departed, The Aviator and Gangs of New York – along with Tim Headington and Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, whose connections helped open doors for shooting locations in England.

No doubt the toughest critics for such a film are the British themselves, but The Young Victoria has already passed muster, having opened in the U.K. in March and taking in $9 million at the box office. Reviews have been mostly positive. ‘A charming costume drama that peeks behind the pomp and pageantry to capture the human side of Britain’s longest-reigning sovereign,’ proclaimed the Daily Express.

Vallée and his team can just sit back and enjoy the show in Toronto, as the film’s North American sales have already been announced and many international territories are locked up. Alliance Films is handling English Canada, while Vivafilm is releasing in Quebec, where the film picture presumably hold particular interest because of Vallée. New distrib Apparition will release the film in the U.S. on Nov. 13, with Sony Pictures handling domestic ancillary rights.