See 1st photo of Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana in upcoming film, 'Spencer'

Production on the film just got underway in Germany.

January 27, 2021, 3:08 PM

The indie movie company Neon has released its first image of Kristen Stewart as Diana, Princess of Wales, in its upcoming drama "Spencer."

Production on the film just got underway in Germany for a planned release this fall, ahead of 2022's 25th anniversary of Diana's death.

The photo shows Stewart as the spitting image of the princess turned human rights advocate. She's staring out of a window, wearing a black blouse and red jacket, with a black veiled hat atop her signature feathered blonde coif.

As previously reported, the period piece takes place in the 1990s and will have Stewart playing Diana over a crucial Christmas holiday during which she allegedly plotted her divorce from Prince Charles and began charting a life away from the British royal family.

The synopsis from Neon reads, "December, 1991: The Prince and Princess of Wales’ marriage has long since grown cold. Though rumours of affairs and a divorce abound, peace is ordained for the Christmas festivities at Sandringham Estate. There's eating and drinking, shooting and hunting. Diana knows the game. This year, things will be a whole lot different."

Princess Diana was killed Aug. 31, 1997 in a car crash in Paris that was caused in part by a high-speed pursuit by paparazzi. Her partner, Dodi Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul, were also killed. A bodyguard survived the crash.

"'Spencer' is a dive inside an emotional imagining of who Diana was at a pivotal turning point in her life," Stewart said in a statement. "It is a physical assertion of the sum of her parts, which starts with her given name; Spencer. It is a harrowing effort for her to return to herself, as Diana strives to hold onto what the name Spencer means to her.’"

Pablo Larrain, who called the shots on Natalie Portman's Oscar-nominated Jacqueline Kennedy 2016 biopic "Jackie," is directing. Neon is the distributor of films like the Oscar-nominated "I, Tonya," the Oscar-winning South Korean film, "Parasite" and more.

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