Anna Daniels
Helen Mirren played a sexy Catherine the Great in her later years in HBO’s steamy miniseries last year, but Elle Fanning will be lending the Russian ruler a satirical edge in the upcoming Hulu comedy series The Great. Watch The Great trailer below.
The Great Trailer
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWaJ6pzrV5U?feature=oembed&w=740&h=416]
If the trailer’s acerbic dialogue, outrageous debauchery, and a foppish Nicholas Hoult as Emperor Peter reminds you of Yorgos Lanthimos’ pitch-black period piece The Favourite, that’s because The Great is created, written and executive produced by Oscar-nominated writer Tony McNamara, who wrote Lanthimos’ Oscar-winning 2018 film.
But while Hoult and Fanning’s stoic performances and the feverish editing certainly calls to mind The Favourite, the comedy of The Great seems even more absurd, in the vein of an Armando Iannucci satire. But Fanning seems to be reveling in doing a more straight comedic role, after years of playing the stony-faced ingenues. And Holt seems to have found his unexpected niche as a character actor who specializes in playing buffoonish elites.
In addition to Fanning and Hoult, The Great also stars Phoebe Fox, Adam Godley, Gwilym Lee, Charity Wakefield, Douglas Hodge, Sacha Dhawan, Sebastian de Souza, Bayo Gbadamosi, and Belinda Bromilow.
Here is the synopsis of The Great:
‘The Great’ is a satirical, comedic drama about the rise of Catherine the Great (Fanning) from outsider to the longest reigning female ruler in Russia’s history. Season One is a fictionalized, fun and anachronistic story of an idealistic, romantic young girl, who arrives in Russia for an arranged marriage to the mercurial Emperor Peter (Hoult). Hoping for love and sunshine, she finds instead a dangerous, depraved, backward world that she resolves to change. All she has to do is kill her husband, beat the church, baffle the military and get the court onside. A very modern story about the past which encompasses the many roles she played over her lifetime as lover, teacher, ruler, friend, and fighter.
The Great premieres on Hulu on May 15, 2020.
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