Red, White & Royal Blue is an upcoming romantic comedy. Based on the New York Times Bestselling novel of the same name by Casey McQuiston, it was directed by Matthew Lopez, who previously directed the Tony Award-winning play The Inheritance. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Lopez said that he read McQuiston’s book back in 2020 and wanted to make it into a movie by page 100.
“I fell madly in love with the characters and I wanted to bring them to life on the screen. I also was excited at the prospect of filming scenes set in the world of the presidency and the British Royal Family. I shamelessly harassed [producers] Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schecter into backing me with the studio to direct it. The idea that someone else might make this movie filled me with unbearable jealousy.”
Going back to his work on the theater, The Inheritance was a “gay epic” inspired by Howards End. With this new movie, Lopez was able to tell another gay love story, but one that he rarely saw onscreen. “A love story between two young men that is hopeful, funny, and deeply romantic,” as he described it. Of course, adapting a book doesn’t come without its own set of challenges.
“[The biggest challenge was] quite simply how to deliver Casey’s story in a way that honored the novel but that didn’t result in a three-hour film. There are a lot of wonderful scenes and characters in the book that didn’t make it into the film because they didn’t fit. I don’t regret any of those decisions but, as a fan of the book, they weren’t easy to make.”
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The Director And Making The Movie
Prime Video
The trailer starts with a split screen introducing our two main characters. Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez) is the son of US President Ellen Claremont (Uma Thurman). Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine) is a British prince and grandson to the King (Stephen Fry). While at the Royal Wedding, they get into an altercation that “takes the cake” in terms of international incidents.
The two of them are thrown together for damage control, where they have to pretend to be friends with one another. It doesn’t seem like it’s going that well, up until Henry kisses Alex. So they end up going from having to pretend they don’t hate each other to pretending that they don’t love each other. That seems like it could get kind of tricky, least of all emotional. Galitzine said:
“As men, we find it hard to express ourselves and express our feelings. But that was a fun thing to explore from an acting perspective. [I was] trying to understand that this person is entirely trapped by his upbringing and his family. And the wedge being placed between his family and the person he loves is a very difficult thing to contend with. That was probably the most challenging, trying to make that authentic and real.”
The trailer reveals a few people close to them figure it out. Ellie Bamber, who played Dove in Willow (2022), plays Princess Bea, Henry’s sister, in this. She’s heard asking Henry “do you love him,” though you don’t see her do it due to the way the trailer is edited. Ellen is also shown telling Alex he needs to figure out if he feels forever about him.
Red, White & Royal Blue is coming to Prime Video on August 11.
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