Elle Fanning offers a new spin on the author of Frankenstein in the trailer for Mary Shelley, which chronicles Shelley’s life prior to the publication of the novel that made her famous.
After marrying poet Percy Shelley (known for “Ozymandias”), Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin 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.
Fanning, whose acting credits include Super 8 and The Beguiled, stars alongside Douglas Booth (Noah) and Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones). The film, which debuted at the Toronto Film Festival, was directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour. She is best known for her 2012 film Wadjda — the first-ever feature from a female Saudi Arabian director.
“We wanted to portray a strong woman who is willing to step out of line and find her own voice,” Al-Mansour told THR.
IFC Films’ Mary Shelley hits theaters May 25.
