The King's Speech Receives Royal Approval!

From The Telegraph:
The Queen is said to have given her blessing to the Oscar-nominated film The King's Speech after watching it in a private screening.

The movie portrays her father King George VI's battle against his speech impediment and also features a young Princess Elizabeth. The Queen was given a private screening of the film in Sandringham and sources have said she found the portrayal "moving".

Screenwriter David Seidler, who was asked by the Queen Mother to delay writing the script, said approval from the Queen was the ultimate honour.

"When her mother asked me 30 years ago to wait, because the memory of these events were still too painful, I understood the intense feelings that were involved," he said. "And now that the film has been written and made with love, and respect, and admiration, the fact that Her Majesty has recognised this is incredibly and wonderfully gratifying."

The Weinstein Company said:
“On behalf of the director Tom Hooper; the producers, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin; Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter and our entire ensemble cast: we are deeply honored and humbled by Her Majesty’s appreciation of the film,” Harvey Weinstein said in a statement Friday. “It was a labor of love for all of us and this is high praise, indeed.”

I'm so pleased for Seidler and director Tom Hooper who have laboured so long for this film,
attempting to due the story justice and now to know that the Queen approves their efforts!

Photo of Seidler: Alberto E. Rodriguez

More on THE KING'S SPEECH

Anonymous (2011)

A political thriller about who actually wrote the plays of William Shakespeare - Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford - set against the backdrop of the succession of Queen Elizabeth I, and the Essex Rebellion against her.

Rhys Ifans (Edward De Vere)
Vanessa Redgrave (Queen Elizabeth I)
Joely Richardson (Princess Elizabeth, younger version played by her mom)
David Thewlis (William Cecil)
Rafe Spall (Shakespeare)
Jamie Campbell-Bower (young De Vere)
Derek Jacobi (narrator of prologue)

Directed by Roland Emmerich

From Rope of Silicon:

Set in the political snake-pit of Elizabethan England, Anonymous speculates on an issue that has for centuries intrigued academics and brilliant minds ranging from Mark Twain and Charles Dickens to Henry James and Sigmund Freud, namely: who was the author of the plays credited to William Shakespeare? Experts have debated, books have been written, and scholars have devoted their lives to protecting or debunking theories surrounding the authorship of the most renowned works in English literature. Anonymous poses one possible answer, focusing on a time when cloak-and-dagger political intrigue, illicit romances in the Royal Court, and the schemes of greedy nobles hungry for the power of the throne were exposed in the most unlikely of places: the London stage.

Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, Roland Emmerich, Joely Richardson, David Thewlis
Photo: Zimbio

Rafe Spall and Rhys Ifans at press conference,
with Rhys' comments getting a laugh from the rest of the cast...

(16 short videos from press conference... you can cycle through or view on Youtube)

David Thewlis:"Some rather extreme things happen and some extreme claims are made but nobody can say it didn't happen which I think is the nice thing about it."

IMDb

Wikipedia