View source for Mary Queen of Scots (unmade film)

{{Short description|Unmade feature film}}
'''''Mary Queen of Scots''''' is an unmade feature film from [[Alexander Mackendrick]]. It was almost made in the late 1960s but filming did not proceed. The script has been much acclaimed and has been the subject of academic appraisal as well as being adapted for radio.<ref>Mackendrick: The Man Who Walked Away (Dermot McQuarrie, 1986) Scottish television.</ref><ref>{{cite book|chapter=Alexander Mackendrick's Mary Stuart and Alan Sharp's Burns Two Unfilmed Scottish Biopics|first=
Brian|last= Hoyle|date= 25 November 2019|url=https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119554783.ch5|title=A Companion to the Biopic|doi=
10.1002/9781119554783.ch5|s2cid=
213272490}}</ref>
It has been called Mackendrick's "lost masterwork".<ref name="guard"/>
==Background==
[[Alexander Mackendrick]] developed the project for many years. He wrote a version of the script in 1961.<ref>[https://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/WGG/C/1166 Copy of script] at Warwick University Library</ref><ref>Mackendrick, Alexander. (1968). Mary Stuart. University of Dundee Archives, uncatalogued.</ref> [[Jay Presson Allen]] also worked on the script.
In May 1968 Universal announced they would finance.<ref>{{cite news|title=Movie call sheet|newspaper=The Los Angeles Times Part 4|date=9 May 1968|page= 16}}</ref>
The film focused on the last fifteen months of Mary's life in Scotland. "I see her as the career girl of her time - a girl of real political intelligence and shrewdness," said Mackendrick. He said the film would be made in the style of a Western, saying Scotland of Mary's time was similarly lawless.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Montreal Star|date=16 November 1968|page=45|first=Ian|last=Macewan|title=New screen version of Mary, Queen of Scots, ready to roll}}</ref>
In 1969 Universal announced that [[Mia Farrow]] would play Mary Queen of Scots with filming to start in spring.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Calgary Herald|date=15 May 1969|page=27|title=Mia Farrow signs fo 'important' Mary Queen of Scots role}}</ref> Sandy Lieberson was the executive.<ref name="guard"/>
However the film was cancelled in April 1969. Universal instead financed a [[Hal B. Wallis]] produced version of the story, ''[[Mary, Queen of Scots (1971 film)|Mary Queen of Scots]]''. The experience prompted Mackendrick to retire from filmmaking.<ref name="guard">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2004/jun/04/3|title=The Lost Queen|first=Helen|last=Mackendrick|date=4 June 2004}}</ref>
The project developed a cult reputation and is one of the best known unfilmed scripts in British cinema. The script was adapted as a radio drama by the BBC in 2018.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001gpg|website=BBC|date=8 December 2018|title=Alexander MacKendrick's Mary Queen of Scots}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Mackendrick, Alexander (1912-1993)|website=BFI Screenonline|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/447947/index.html|first=Annette|last=Kuhn}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Alexander Mackendrick}}
[[Category:Cancelled films]]
[[Category:Cancelled projects]]
[[Category:Films about Mary, Queen of Scots]]