Quebec director to work with Scorsese on Young Victoria film

Quebec director Jean-Marc Vallée, creator of the 2005 film C.R.A.Z.Y., will work with Hollywood great Martin Scorsese on a biopic of Queen Victoria.

Scorsese and Graham King are to produce the film about the British monarch, titled The Young Victoria,and Vallée will direct.

"We all think we know Queen Victoria from the latter part of her life, but the fact she was an amazing, dynamic, romantic personality from a very early age is largely unknown," King said in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter.

British-born King produced The Aviator, Gangs of New York and The Departed, the film about Boston mobsters that could win Scorsese his first Oscar.

Julian Fellowes, who won an Academy Award for the screenplay for Gosford Park, will write the screenplay about the early life of Victoria, who came to the throne at age 18 and had an intense romance with her husband, Prince Albert.

Queen Victoria was Britain’s longest-serving monarch, ruling from 1837 until her death in 1901, a period when the British Empire was at its most powerful.

Vallee’s C.R.A.Z.Y., a Quebec coming-of-age story, won 10 Genie Awards in 2006. The Young Victoria is to begin shooting this year.