Greg Wetherall 
“Being around young actors and actresses is amazing, they have so much energy and an impulsiveness to do things right – it makes me feel young,” said director Haifaa Al Mansour about her new movie, Mary Shelley, who tells the story of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (Elle Fanning) – author of one of the world’s most famous Gothic novels ‘Frankenstein’ – and her fiery, tempestuous relationship with renowned romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (Douglas Booth.) The pair are two outsiders constrained by polite society but bound together by a natural chemistry and progressive ideas that are beyond the boundaries of their age and time. Mary and Percy declare their love for each other and much to her family’s horror they run away together, joined by Mary’s half-sister Claire (Bel Powley.)
The screenplay for Mary Shelley was written by Emma Jensen, with additional writing by director Haifaa Al Mansour. Haifaa credits finding a kindred spirit in Mary Shelley for her taking on the project, saying “I come from Saudi Arabia and although it’s an English period film about the story of a young girl growing up who is trying to find her voice, surrounded by superstition that she wants to break free of, I really identified with the main character.” Producer Amy Baer said of the spec screenplay that was sent to her “I was astounded that Mary was only 18 when she created and wrote Frankenstein and I felt that this was a story that had to be told.”
For leading actress Elle Fanning, who plays Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, her closeness in age to the character at the time of her writing Frankenstein, and her progressive outlook, made the author an ideal role – commenting that “to be able to play a woman that was so ahead of her time in so many ways was really what attracted me to the script. I was very nervous and scared because no one has ever told HER tale before, and because it’s such a special one that I think needs to be heard. Although set in the 1800’s, I think her journey is so modern and relevant to today’s world.”
- Watch here the first trailer for Mary Shelley:
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