We all know Scarlett Johansson is set to star in another Elizabethan period drama (on top of The Other Boleyn Girl), called Mary, Queen of Scots. The good news is that Phillip Noyce, who’s excellent with scale and specificity and character, is set to direct.

Scarlett Johansson, Phillip Noyce, Samantha Morton

The costume biopic, based on a script by James McGovern, is about the blonde Scottish queen with bee-stung, slightly parted lips who eventually became a rival to the English throne, which finally led to her beheading by Elizabeth in 1587. The presumption, obviously, is that the producers, Melanie Johansson and Alexandra Milchan, feel that appetites were merely whetted when Samantha Morton played Mary in a subplot of Elizabeth: The Golden Age.
Variety‘s Michael Fleming has reported that Mary Queen of Scots will be financed by Capitol Films and Relativity, and shot next spring in London and Scotland.