Elle Fanning has spent most of her 12-year career making movies. Now, at 22, she’s jumping into television, starring as Catherine the Great in Hulu’s 10-part satirical comedy series “The Great,” which debuts on May 15. Written by “The Favourite” scribe Tony McNamara, the show follows Catherine’s rise to power, from her arranged marriage to Peter III (Nicholas Hoult) to becoming empress of Russia in 1762 after having her husband assassinated.

“I didn’t know much about her. I knew the she-had-sex-with-a-horse propaganda,” Fanning says. “That’s what I knew about her, which is extremely sad. But I came to learn that she’s this kind of feminist icon, and she brought enlightenment to Russia and brought female education and art and science, and really did amazing things. She invented the roller coaster as well. She’s quite fun.”

What have you been doing during quarantine?

I’ve been with my sister [Dakota Fanning] and my mom and my grandmother cooking and baking a lot. My sister has been doing paint by numbers, and also this kind of bedazzling thing. Everyone’s embroidering. We’re getting creative. I’m doing a jigsaw puzzle of the “Top Gun” movie poster.

I love the paint by numbers.

She did a giant, a really big one of a flamingo. I got one. I haven’t done it, but it’s of spotted dogs.

Let’s talk about “The Great.”

It starts when Catherine is quite young and she arrives in Russia. She’s extremely optimistic and open and romantic and slightly naive to what is about to happen to her life. She’s going to marry Peter, who is the emperor of Russia. She meets him, and he is definitely not anything that she thought he was going to be. Reality hits her in her face, and she quickly realizes that she needs to kill her husband for her life to be OK. We’re not here trying to give a history lesson to anyone, but there are elements in each episode that are true, slightly based on what Catherine did. It was a play that was put on in Australia that Tony had done years ago. Then it was going to possibly be a movie. I read the movie script that actually spanned much more of her life. It was her young, up until her death. Then there was talks of, “Hey, there’s so much information, TV is so hot right now, or whatever.” Let’s do a TV show. Tony asked if I would help kind of develop it with him and come on as a producer, which was huge for me. Also, I felt a lot like Catherine in finding my voice in that space as a young woman.

The Tribeca Film Festival is bringing some exclusive conversations with stars to Facebook this month in its Tribeca Talks At Home series.

Beginning May 3, the festival began livestreaming a number of conversations, with the first including Lily Collins and Simon Pegg on their movie “Inheritance”.

Upcoming live interviews will include Bradley Whitford and Mary and Jay Duplass on “Not Going Quietly”, and Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult on their series “The Great”.

Tribeca Film Festival winner, Netflix’s “The Half Of It” will also have a livestream conversation with director Alice Wu and stars Alexxis Lemire, Leah Lewis and Daniel Diemer.

All talks will be streamed live on the festival’s Facebook page.

“THE GREAT”

Watch the Talk on Facebook MAY 15 @ 1PM EST
Stars Elle Fanning and Nicolas Hoult discuss their roles as young Catherine the Great and Peter III in Hulu’s quirky, modern-tinged telling from the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of “The Favourite”. Featuring cast members Elle Fanning & Nicholas Hoult, Writer Tony McNamara, and Executive Producer Marian MacGowen. [Source]

More great stills of the upcoming Elle Fanning’ series, ‘The Great’, have been added to the gallery. You can go to the gallery and enjoy the photos.

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Sony’s The Nightingale WWII drama starring Elle and Dakota Fanning, which was suppose to come out at the end of this year, has been pushed to Dec. 22, 2021 due to the COVID-19 production shutdown.

Real-life sisters Elle and Dakota Fanning will play on-screen sisters in the coming-of-age story adapted from Kristin Hannah’s international bestseller. Pic, which is being directed by Melanie Laurent, is set on the eve of World War II and follows the sisters’ struggle to survive and resist the German occupation of France. The story was inspired by the courageous women of the French Resistance who helped downed Allied airmen escape Nazi-occupied territory and hid Jewish children.

The project reteams Laurent with Elle Fanning after the duo worked on the 2018 movie Galveston together.

The Nightingale has been published in 45 languages, and went on to sell 3.5 million copies in the U.S. alone and became a No. 1 New York Times Bestseller for a total of 114 weeks on the list. [Source]

Elle Fanning covers Glamour Russia, May 2020 issue. You can go to the gallery to take a look to the scans. Don’t forget to buy the magazine.

Elle Fanning covers Io Donna del Corriere della Sera, April 25, 2020 issue. You can go to the gallery to take a look to the scans. Don’t forget to buy the magazine.

I have added some stills of the upcoming Elle Fanning’ series, ‘The Great’. You can go to the gallery and enjoy the photos. Can’t wait to whatch the series!

The release date for TriStar’s “The Nightingale,” starring Dakota Fanning and Elle Fanning, has now been unset.

In December, TheWrap exclusively reported that Mélanie Laurent (“Galveston”) would direct the period drama from a script by Dana Stevens. Elizabeth Cantillon was to produce through her production company The Cantillon Company. The two sisters were to unite for the first time on screen to play sisters, based on Kristin Hannah’s worldwide best-seller of the same name.

“The Nightingale,” which was in preproduction before worldwide film shoots halted in March, was due to be released on Christmas Day this year. Production is expected to restart once it is safe to do so.

“The Nightingale” follows two sisters coming of age in France on the eve of World War II and their struggle to survive the German occupation of France. The story is inspired by the courageous women of the French Resistance who helped downed Allied airmen escape Nazi-occupied territory and hid Jewish children.

Hannah’s book became a hit after it was published in 2015. It has since been published in 45 languages and sold more than 3.5 million copies in the U.S. alone. It has become No. 1 New York Times best-seller and spent a total of 114 weeks on the New York Times Bestsellers List. It was also named the best book of the year by BuzzFeed, iTunes, Library Journal, The Wall Street Journal, Goodreads and others. [Source]

Oscar-nominated writer and showrunner Tony McNamara doesn’t reckon he’ll get any warm, fuzzy letters from historians about his upcoming Hulu series The Great, a deliciously ahistorical take on the rise of Catherine the Great. The series, which stars Elle Fanning as the titular Russian monarch, traces the outline of Catherine’s life, then colors it in with lurid details and wild dialogue dreamt up by McNamara—who also wrote 2018’s The Favourite, a punk period piece about Queen Anne.

“I find period shows too polite on the whole,” he said. “They’re so drowned in their own historical facts.”

In a new trailer for the series, available exclusively on Vanity Fair, Catherine begins settling into life with her new husband, the immature Peter III, played by Nicholas Hoult. “She’s an extreme optimist in the beginning, and has this kind of beautiful look on life and love—and then is in for a real big rude awakening when she gets to Russia,” Fanning said of her character.

I have added the scans of Elle Fanning for Vanity Fair UK, May 2020 issue. You can go to the gallery and enjoy. Don’t forget to buy the magazine!