French actress Isabelle Huppert will play the Scottish contender for the English throne, Mary Stuart, in the better-late-than-never film version of Frederich Schiller¹s celebrated play of the same name.

Meryl Streep was previously announced for that title role but has since bowed out of the project. Glenn Close, however, will stick with the part she was dealt: Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth I.

Schiller's historical drama, which has never been filmed before, will finally be put before the cameras next month in England by theatre director Richard Eyre. He was most recently represented on Broadway via David Hare¹s Oscar Wilde opus at the Broadhurst, The Judas Kiss, starring Liam Neeson.

Mary Stuart is a monarch-wrestle between two powerful women. In real life, they never met, but on stage or on screen, they always meet. Past celluloid confrontations: Katharine Hepburn¹s Mary of Scotland did battle with Florence Eldridge¹s Queen Elizabeth in John Ford¹s 1936 cinemazation of Maxwell Anderson¹s play; thirty-five years later, Vanessa Redgrave¹s Mary, Queen of Scots went up against Glenda Jackson¹s Elizabeth in an original screenplay which was helmed by Charles Jarrott.

-- By Harry Haun