The greatest romance of her life inspired her darkest creation.
That's the description of the new IFC Films trailer released a couple of days ago. If you're intrigued, get ready to watch a story about the woman who wrote "Frankestein". Mary Shelley tells the tale of Shelley's tumultuous life, which will premiere on May 25 in New York and Los Angeles after debuting at the Toronto Film Festival, with a Tribeca Film Festival screening coming next week. VOD follows on June 1.
Young Shelley had a life that seems inspired from a novel of the era. Her mother died when she was young, leaving her in the care of a political philosopher father who was somewhat free-wheeling. Then there was the romance with poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, which caused a family disruption, and her life as a political radical and advocate for social change.
Mary Shelley chronicles Shelley’s life prior to the publication of the novel that made her famous. The trailer offers a few solid glimpses into Mary's life, including her marriage with poet Percy Shelley (known for "Ozymandias"). After their marriage, she writes her first novel in reaction to Romantic writer Lord Byron’s insistence that women can’t write fiction. "The woman is not intelligent enough to form ideas of her own," he tells her in the trailer. But when she publishes Frankenstein under her married name, Shelley, readers begin to believe that her husband, in fact, wrote the novel, and she has to fight to prove that the story is her own.
Director Haifaa al-Mansour (Wadjda) is the latest to explore this compelling story, offering a look that focuses on her teen years and the budding romance with Shelley. Elle Fanning (The Beguiled) plays the title role, with Douglas Boothe (Noah) as Percy Bysshe Shelley and supporting cast including Maisie Williams, Bel Powley, Tom Sturridge, Jack Hickey, Joanna Froggatt, Ben Hardy, and Stephen Dillane.
The movie was written by Emma Jensen and al-Mansour, and produced by Amy Baer, Alan Moloney, and Ruth Coady.
Watch the trailer below.
The official synopsis reads:
Mary Wollstonecraft’s family disapproves when she and poet Percy Shelley announce their love for each other. The family is horrified when it finds that the couple has eloped, accompanied by Mary’s half-sister, Claire. While staying in the home of Lord Byron at Lake Geneva, the guests are challenged to write a ghost story, which leads Mary to conceive her novel “Frankenstein.”