Mary Shelley trailer: Elle Fanning, Maisie Williams star in this biopic of Frankenstein author

IFC Films dropped the full length trailer for the historic romance Mary Shelley last week. Elle Fanning portrays the titular character in Mary Shelley, a film about the early life of the woman who wrote one of literature’s most enduring horror stories — Frankenstein. The daughter of political philosopher William Godwin, and philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, Shelley gets the biopic treatment from Saudi Arabian filmmaker Haifaa Al-Mansour. [caption id=“attachment_4442403” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Elle Fanning in Mary Shelley. IFC Films[/caption] The film shows her as a teenage dreamer determined to make her mark on the world when she meets the brilliant Romantic poet Percy Shelley. The gorgeously shot film explores the various struggles and the personal tragedy that led Shelley to write her seminal novel. Though the trailer reveals a fascinating story of a great writer and an influential feminist icon, there are parts which seem excessively ornate and melodramatic. Along with Fanning, Mary Shelley boasts of plenty of promising young talent like Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones’ Arya Stark), Douglas Booth (Noah, Jupiter Ascending), Bel Powley (The Diary of a Teenage Girl) and Ben Hardy (X-Men: Apocalypse). The film is based on an original screenplay by Australian screenwriter Emma Jensen. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last year. Mary Shelley is scheduled to release in theatres on 28 May.