Get your first look at Kris­ten Stew­art as Princess Diana

Kris­ten Stew­art has been on a curi­ous run of off-the-beat­en-path biopics in her career’s recent years, por­tray­ing famous fig­ures with more thorny and con­tro­ver­sial pasts than, say, com­put­er-inven­tor Alan Tur­ing. She played author and illu­sion-weaver JT Leroy, screen star turned rad­i­cal Jean Seberg, Lizzie Borden’s lover Brid­get Sul­li­van, and now, she’s adding one more his­tor­i­cal heavy­weight to her gallery.

Today brings the first look at Stew­art in Spencer, the upcom­ing Princess Diana film in which she por­trays the British roy­al cut down in her prime by a trag­ic car wreck. In the image below, a be-veiled Stew­art flash­es a look of con­cern, which makes sense, as Lady Di had a lot on her mind at this point in her life.

An offi­cial syn­op­sis accom­pa­ny­ing the pro­mo image explains that the film has been set in the days pri­or to Diana’s deci­sion to end her mar­riage to Prince Charles, a union of con­ve­nience long since grown cold and unfaith­ful. The film joins her in Decem­ber 1991, as she attends the hol­i­day fes­tiv­i­ties at San­dring­ham Estate, where civil­i­ty must be main­tained even as hot emo­tions roil beneath the surface.

The film will be the next direc­to­r­i­al cred­it for Pablo Lar­raín, an old hand at form-bust­ing biopics from his days work­ing on No, Neru­da, and most rel­e­vant­ly, Jack­ie. But today’s press release also announces some intrigu­ing col­lab­o­ra­tors in cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er Claire Math­on (recent­ly of Atlantics and Por­trait of a Lady on Fire) as well as sound­track com­pos­er Jon­ny Green­wood, Radio­head gui­tarist and reg­u­lar favorite of Paul Thomas Ander­son.

The film, to be released in the States by hot bou­tique dis­trib­u­tor Neon, has been slat­ed for a debut this fall. Going on the pedi­gree of attached names alone, this will be a mar­quee title for cinephiles in 2021, not to men­tion the legions of Kris­ten Stew­art fans eager to see their graven idol once again in the trag­ic-roman­tic mode she first mas­tered back in her Twi­light days.