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Starz CEO confirms they are in talks for a sequel

posted 10 years ago by romans_nine
14 replies | jump to latest

At the top of Starz‘s TCA session, CEO Chris Albrecht did his semi-annual State Of The Network overview, laying out his programming plans for the next year... Albrecht gave an update on Starz’s plans for The White Princess, a sequel to The White Queen limited series, which was a co-production between Starz and the BBC and did very well for Starz and not so well for the BBC, which opted not to continue with the property. “We’re working with (The White Queen screenwriter) Emma Frost on the stories,” Albrecht said. “We will not have BBC as part of it. We are interested, if the stars align, in a sequal to The White Queen.” Like the original series, it would be based on the book by Philippa Gregory. http://deadline.com/2014/01/tca-starzs-chris-albrecht-on-2014-plans-wh ite-queen-sequel-magic-citys-demise-661969/

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[–] shellieeyre 10 years ago

If it uses Gregory's book it will pull off the rather unusual feat of being simultaneously dull and overwrought. Terrible book.

I'm the clever one; you're the potato one.

[–] marudd50 9 years ago

I would like to see a sequel. I know quite a bit about the history of this time, but I still enjoy this sort of show even with some anachronisms. As for authenticity, we often don't really know what a character in history really thought or even did, so a lot of speculation is necessary. I recall the one production in which I howled at the unrealistic action: It was in the otherwise excellent production of Jane Austen's Persuasion, when Anne passionately kissed Captain Wentworth on a public street in Bath. A well-brought-up girl of that period would never do that, no matter how happy she was.
But I digress...........

Beauty is truth, truth beauty.

[–] shellieeyre 9 years ago

Welcome to Henry VII: Serial Rapist.

Ugh.

I'm the clever one; you're the potato one.

[–] marudd50 9 years ago

I don't read the books. But how does she claim Henry VII was a serial rapist? Who does he rape, allegedly? Probably Kate of Aragon, for one. Will you watch the series if they make it? You know, she has a Doctorate in English or History or something like that. I suspect she throws in the sex, rape, neat endings, etc., because she thinks that's what people want. I prefer historical fiction without the bodice ripping, although years ago I liked things like Forever Amber. I suspect I'd laugh if I read it now. But I still like Gone With the Wind, book and movie.

Beauty is truth, truth beauty.

[–] shellieeyre 9 years ago

In The White Princess she has Henry rape Elizabeth of York (who got jiggy with RIII apparently) to make sure she's fertile. I have no idea from where she pulled this, other than Arthur being born "in the eighth month", (although that does not rule out consensual sex before marriage, or prematurity), except that she seems to have a bit of a thing for rape. In the book Henry says that if she doesn't conceive he'd marry one of her sisters. Presumably he'd work his way through all the York girls until one of them comes up with a pregnancy.

Records show that Henry and Elizabeth, for all their marriage was one of diplomatic necessity, grew to love one another. They disliked, in an era when kings and queens typically maintained separate households, being apart and travelled together when affairs of state took the king away; he turned down the Pope's nominee for a bishopric because he'd already promised it to Elizabeth's confessor; he lavished gifts on her (a lion!); in 1492 her loving letters to him played a part in his returning from Brittany; their tenderness toward each other on Arthur's death is well documented, and when Elizabeth died Henry basically fell apart. Foreign emissaries courted the queen's favour which suggests that they knew she had some clout.

In The White Princess she also has the ghastly, whining, stupid Elizabeth fall in love with Henry (for about 5 pages); unless Gregory thinks that a woman would grow to love and trust the man who raped her, I have to suppose that she's using a cheap device to paint Henry as an irredeemable villain, but in doing so she also paints Elizabeth as an idiot. Not only that, her obvious crush on RIII has him deflowering his niece for God's sake because well, he's irresistible and has to be sex on legs. Ridiculous. It does no favours to Richard whatsoever.

I'd add that there are no contemporary allusions to a liaison between Henry and Katherine Gordon, nor to his ever having taken a mistress at all.

Her degree is in English literature. I have no problem with whatever crap someone wants to use in writing fiction, but when she presents herself as an historian this tips over into gross misrepresentation of the facts, and she does indeed represent herself as an historian.

I might be able to forgive all or some of that were the book well written, but it's really not.

I'm the clever one; you're the potato one.

[–] marudd50 9 years ago

Thank you for the in-depth answer! I see what you mean. Unfortunately, I just ordered her non-fiction book on Elizabeth, her mother Jaquetta and Margaret Beaufort earlier today! BTW, I am supposed to be descended from Margaret's mother. I hope she was nothing like the way her daughter was portrayed in The White Queen! Most unattractive personality, and that jutting chin!

I love it when educated people widen their work to less educated people and do it well, and I loathe it when they cash out and dumb it down.

Again, my thanks.

Beauty is truth, truth beauty.

[–] ivanac-01225 9 years ago

Funnily enough, I found Margaret to be the best character on the show. ;) Obviously, that does not mean I like her as a person, but, unlike so many other characters (especially the female characters), her characterization was consistent but she wasn't one-dimensional, and she had a storyline that actually went somewhere. Her scenes with her mother and her second husband were really strong and moving, and her scenes with Stanley really fun. (I'd rather watch a lot more of them scheming together and a lot less of Edward IV and Elizabeth, even with all the hot sex scenes they were really boring.) And the actress was fantastic and gave her humanity, making her sympathetic but also hilarious at times (unintentionally on the character's part, of course) in spite of being a villain, sort of.

I don't know what the real Margaret was like, but the inaccuracies on the show (e.g. Margaret married Stanley while her mother was still alive) served the story, so I'm more willing to excuse them.

[–] ivanac-01225 9 years ago

unless Gregory thinks that a woman would grow to love and trust the man who raped her

Well, she also has Elizabeth Woodville fall in love with Edward IV who had tried to rape her, doesn't she? (I haven't read the book, I'm just going by what was in the TV show.) That was a really weird depiction of "romance", too.

Her degree is in English literature. I have no problem with whatever crap someone wants to use in writing fiction, but when she presents herself as an historian this tips over into gross misrepresentation of the facts, and she does indeed represent herself as an historian.

She likes to interpret contemporary rumors (especially if they are about alleged incest - or witchcraft) as gospel truth. In case of the supposed affair between Elizabeth of York and Richard III, she takes some contemporary rumors (the supposedly planned marriage, which Richard denied in public, sounding very upset and angry, after Anne's death) and takes them to extreme (there's no evidence that even the rumors went so far to suggest an actual sexual affair), but she ignores the facts that go against it: it's 100% certain that Richard III was successfully negotiating a double marriage with Portugal - he was to marry princess Joanna of Portugal, sister of the Portuguese king, while Elizabeth was to marry the king's cousin Manuel, Duke of Beja (who later became king Manuel I). The documents in Portuguese records were discovered in 1983, so while a lot of the older histories were lacking that knowledge, Gregory should have been aware of it, but she ignores it altogether.

Now, I can see why an incestuous affair is more exciting to a historical fiction writer than the reality of 15th century royals' political marriages to foreign royals they had never met, but she should acknowledge that she is choosing to take liberties rather than insist she's being historically accurate.

[–] eyeguy72 9 years ago

I don't see any progress being made on The White Princess.

Anyone hear anything new?

"You weren't born pretty and it isn't fair"

[–] Sook-Yongsheng 9 years ago

she also has Elizabeth Woodville fall in love with Edward IV who had tried to rape her, doesn't she?

Edward's attempted rape of Elizabeth Woodville was rumored at the time to have actually taken place. Presumably he was unsuccessful.

I never heard of Henry VII trying to rape their daughter, Elizabeth of York.

I have read sources who think EoY might have had some sort of relationship with her uncle, Richard III. Whether or not it was sexual is unclear.

I don't think it's inconceivable that Richard would have seen potential in marrying his niece. He was a widower, and EoY was the female prize in the crown-of-England sweepstakes.

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[–] ivanac-01225 9 years ago

I haven't heard of the rumors of Edward trying to rape Elizabeth - only that he wanted to sleep with her and she refused.

But even if there's a rumor or something about this version of events (where does it come from?), why would you go with that version, as a writer, if you're trying to portray the Elizabeth/Edward relationship as a real romance? They know each other for a very short time, he behaves not only as a total jerk but tries to rape her and then complains that she was leading him on, and suddenly she's supposed to be in love with him? Not just finding him hot and/or liking the idea of being a queen, but genuinely in love? That was really hard to swallow.

I don't think it's inconceivable that Richard would have seen potential in marrying his niece. He was a widower, and EoY was the female prize in the crown-of-England sweepstakes.

If you're Henry Tudor, looking to strengthen your claim to the throne by marrying Edward IV's daughter after repealing Titulus Regius and making her officially legitimate again (as Henry did when he got the throne), then definitely yes. Not if you're Richard III, who's not only her uncle but also the king who became king by the act of Parliament pronouncing Elizabeth and her siblings illegitimate. For him to marry Elizabeth, even if he were to apply for a papal dispensation (which he never did) and manage to obtain it (and even without taking into account that an uncle/niece marriage would have been seen as shocking in England and caused adverse reactions), he would have also needed to repeal Titulus Regius so he would make her legitimate again and therefore fit to be Queen Consort of England - which would mean he would be practically pronouncing himself a usurper, since it would have also made her brothers legitimate. I find it hard to see how the potential benefits of such a marriage would have come close to outweighing all the damage.

The idea of Richard marrying Elizabeth doesn't make sense politically, and is seems extremely unlikely he ever seriously intended that - especially considering the fact that he was negotiating a double marriage between himself and princess Joanna of Portugal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joanna,_Princess_of_Portugal, the sister of the Portuguese king, and Elizabeth (or "daughter of Edward IV" as it was apparently worded, sidestepping the issue of her status) and Manuel, Duke of Beja, Portuguese royal duke and cousin to the king of Portugal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_I_of_Portugal). This did make a lot of sense, especially since Joanna had legitimate Lancastrian descent through her great-grandmother Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster. It would have also put Elizabeth far out of the reach of Henry Tudor or anyone else aiming for the throne of England, which the Portuguese duke was unlikely to do. The Portuguese really wanted the alliance with England, and even Joanna accepted the proposal, in spite of her previous refusals to get married, and it only became void because Richard was defeated and killed at Bosworth. (BTW, if Elizabeth had married the Duke of Beja, she would have eventually ended up as Queen of Portugal, since he later became king Manuel I, though no one probably could have foreseen that at the time.) The plans for the Portuguese marriage weren't known to the historians until the early 1980s, when the documents were found in the Portuguese records.

The rumors that Richard intended to marry Elizabeth, which he vehemently and angrily publicly denied after Anne's death, seems more like something that would be used by his enemies to besmirch his reputation - it hits all the beats: accusations of incest (favorite late medieval/Renaissance type of sexual slander - see the Borgias, Anne Boleyn...), hint that he wasn't such a faithful and devoted husband as he had been considered, implication of hypocrisy considering his known attitudes on sexual morality, implication that he was the kind of man who would do anything to strengthen his hold on the throne - including breaking taboos about one's family, and the implication that he was so obviously a usurper that even he didn't take the legal premise by which he became king seriously (if anyone bothered to even think the premise of the rumor through).

Whether there was something that prompted these rumors - as per "there's no smoke without fire" - it's hard to tell. It's not inconceivable that there wasn't some attraction between them that people at court picked up on - after all, they hardly could have had a classic uncle/niece relationship since he had lived far away from Edward IV's court while she was growing up - but even so, I doubt it would have amounted to anything like what Gregory imagines.

[–] Sook-Yongsheng 9 years ago

I haven't heard of the rumors of Edward trying to rape Elizabeth - only that he wanted to sleep with her and she refused.

Wasn't there some tale of him holding a knife to her throat? It may have been exaggerated over the centuries...still, there are some things that will always be impossible to know for sure. That's the nature of history.

I didn't know about the Portuguese wedding plans -- you're right, it would have made better sense for Richard to marry the princess of Portugal if he wanted to squelch all rumors of incest, as well as sidestep the awkward issue of EoY's exact status vis-à-vis legitimacy.

Ironically enough, Portuguese and Spanish royalty practiced close consanguinity marriage. The Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, was married to his first cousin Isabella of Portugal.

Phillip II of Spain married his niece, Anna of Austria. The royal bloodlines of Spain and Portugal appear to have been very "inbred."

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[–] t-l-s 9 years ago

thus the Hapsburg Chin

[–] LadyMadChan 9 years ago

Uncle niece marriages were not unheard of in the Iberian peninsula. IMO they played a big role in the eventual end of the houses of Aviz and the Spanish branch of the Hapsburg family.

The Hapsburgs did go on to practice uncle and niece marriages and sometimes the couple could simultaneously be cousins too(!) They were rightly infamous for this. Just look at Philip II of Spain and Anna and Austria (his sister's daughter). They would go on to have 5 children but only 1 would survive to adulthood. At one point there were serious considerations to pair Philip with his (half) aunt and cousin Maria of Portugal, Duchess of Viseu. Later a marriage between Philip's sister Joanna and Philip's mentally unstable son Don Carlos was very much on the table before Don Carlos died (of very suspicious circumstances)

Isabella the Catholic mother was the product of a (half) uncle and niece marriage. Her rival Joanna la Beltraneja was married to her maternal uncle Afonso V of Portugal but they didn't have children.