What are people saying about Firebrand?

Buzz around the project is already starting to build, and for good reason.

“This is a woman who deserves a portrait,” director Karim Aïnouz told Deadline. “There has been much depicted on the king and the wives that perished. It’s important to look at someone who turns out to be stronger than the forces around them. This is a modernistic look at the classic trope of the woman trapped in a castle with a monster.”

Speaking about the film’s influences, he continued: “One of the first things that came to mind when I started this was the legend of Bluebeard. I think it’s important to revisit narratives that have been conveyed as romantic love stories. Henry was a most interesting person, but he was uber-violent, which was in tune with the times.”

The project will indeed skew the narrative from what historical re-enactments usually tell us. “Jude will not play him as the clichéd fat man eating the turkey leg,” Aïnouz explains. “Jude got how complex this guy was, not a loveable character but as a most powerful man of his time. And Michelle immediately came to mind. I so admire her choices, going back to Brokeback Mountain, and there is something fascinating about her each time I rediscover her in a performance.”

It sounds like we’re in for a deliciously dark take on one of history’s most famous marriages.

Firebrand: period drama meets psychological thriller as Jude Law takes on the role of a vulgar, violent Henry VIII