Pierce Brosnan film to debut after eight-year delay
Pierce Brosnan’s latest role sees him portray King Louis XIV in The King’s Daughter, but its January release comes after an unusually long delay.
The film, based on Vonda N. McIntyre’s 1997 novel The Moon and The Sun, follows King Louis XIV’s journey for immortality. His quest seemingly ends when he captures a mermaid with the intention of stealing her life force to fuel his immortality. However, the plot thickens when he discovers his illegitimate daughter, Marie-Josèphe, has become close with the mythical creature.
Starring alongside Brosnan is Kaya Scodelario (The Maze Runner) as Marie-Josèphe, Fan Bingbing (X-Men: Days of Future Past) as the Mermaid, and Julie Andrews as the film’s Narrator, as well as William Hurt, Benjamin Walker and Rachel Griffiths.
Although a trailer for the film was released in December 2021, no-one had heard of the film at the time, with ScreenRant reporting that the film was actually completed in 2014.
With an initial release date set for the following year, The King’s Daughter was cancelled just weeks before its premiere due to issues with the film’s water-based visual effects with no future release date set.
After responsibility for the film’s distribution was passed around multiple times, independent film company Gravitas Ventures eventually secured the rights and will now release it on January 21, 2022.
Pierce Brosnan stars as a French king in the film, which will finally be released after eight long years of delays. Image: Thekingsdaughter.com
The film’s lengthy delay comes as the film industry continues to grapple with the impact of COVID-19, which has seen delays affect big titles such as John Wick 4 and Marvel’s Morbius among others.
Though delays are often a bad sign for films, Paul Currie, a producer for The King’s Daughter, has said he is confident in the film and claims it will be “somewhere between Twilight and Alice in Wonderland”.
Expectations may also be running high due to the popularity of the source material, with the critically acclaimed The Moon and The Sun even beating Game of Thrones for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1997. But, it’s debut is sure to spark plenty of scrutiny too, as is common with book adaptations.
Whatever the outcome, the long-overdue release of The King’s Daughter will prove to be a victory in itself, all while showing that pandemic-related delays are nothing to be complained about.
Image: Thekingsdaughter.com