Mary Shelley, the biopic that has been in the works since 2014, is finally coming to theaters. IFC Films released the latest trailer, starring Elle Fanning as the Frankenstein author and establishing the love, betrayal, loss, death, and lightning that inspired her to write the first great work of science fiction.
The official synopsis, from IFC Films:
She will forever be remembered as the writer who gave the world Frankenstein. But the real life story of Mary Shelley—and the creation of her immortal monster—is nearly as fantastical as her fiction. Raised by a renowned philosopher father (Stephen Dillane) in 18th-century London, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (Elle Fanning) is a teenage dreamer determined to make her mark on the world when she meets the dashing and brilliant poet Percy Shelley (Douglas Booth). So begins a torrid, bohemian love affair marked by both passion and personal tragedy that will transform Mary and fuel the writing of her Gothic masterwork. Imbued with the imaginative spirit of its heroine, Mary Shelley brings to life the world of a trailblazing woman who defied convention and channeled her innermost demons into a legend for the ages.
This trailer does seem to lean very much on Mary’s romantic plights, fighting off Lord Byron’s attentions and begging Percy Shelley to regard her as both a partner and a writer in her own right. Hopefully the film won’t frame her writing of Frankenstein solely as a challenge to the men in her life, and the trailer is misleading. After all, there is mention of the literary dare that actually inspired the novel…
Mary Shelley comes to theaters May 25 and Video OnDemand June 1.
