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On August 25, 2012, under a car park in the English city of Leicester, the remains of King Richard III, killed in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth, were discovered. This amazing find was thanks to the work and persistence of Philippa Langley, an amateur historian and member of the Richard III Society, as well as historian John Ashdown-Hill, through their “Finding Richard” project. And she also came to demystify the idea of the horrible physical deformity of the monarch, invented and spread by the propaganda of the Tudor dynasty after the War of the Roses, amplified by William Shakespeare in his play. Richard III and generally accepted by the vast majority of historians and popularized in public opinion.
In “The Lost King”, the English director Stephen Frears (“Dangerous Liaisons”, “High Fidelity”, “The Queen”) recounts, with the necessary dramatic liberties, how Phillipa Langley (played by Sally Hawkins) faced the establishment academic and university and confirmed his theses, by locating the missing body of the king exactly where he said it was. The Observer spoke with Frears about the film, which opens this Thursday in Portuguese cinemas.
The film was written by Steve Coogan, who also plays Philippa Langley’s ex-husband, and by Jeff Pope, who had previously written “Filomena.” Did they present you with a finished script or just a synopsis?
Steve got the idea to make this story into a film after seeing a documentary on the case, “The King in the Car Park”, and immediately contacted Philippa Langley. He knew that they were writing it and that it would somehow reach me. In fact, she came along and I thought it was really good, so we went ahead with shooting. It was all very easy and we shot it in seven or eight weeks.
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Source: Observadora
