The King's Daughter (2022 film)
The King's Daughter is a 2022 action-adventure fantasy film directed by Sean McNamara from a screenplay by Barry Berman and James Schamus.It stars Pierce Brosnan as King Louis XIV, Kaya Scodelario as Marie-Josèphe, and Benjamin Walker as Yves De La Croix.Originally intended to be released in April 2015, the film was delayed just three weeks prior in order to complete post-production effects.It then sat in development hell for over five years, until the distribution rights were acquired by Gravitas Ventures, which released it theatrically on January 21, 2022, to negative reviews.Louis sends a group of fishermen, led by Captain Yves De La Croix, to capture the creature, a mermaid.Louis and his men arrive and prepare to kill the mermaid as the eclipse approaches, but giving him the choice to save either his own life or hers, Marie-Josèphe jumps off the cliff and hits the water hard.Theatre director Christopher Renshaw signed on to direct, while Laura Harrington would write the screenplay with McIntyre's involvement.[3] Following Sony terminating their joint venture with The Jim Henson Company, thus ending Jim Henson Pictures, production was shelved until film producer Bill Mechanic joined production and revived the film with Walt Disney Pictures after signing a five-year deal with the company in December 2001.Mechanic planned for the film to start pre-production in early 2002, with Natalie Portman to star, James Schamus to revise the script, and Gregory Hoblit to possibly direct.The casting included Pierce Brosnan as King Louis XIV, Fan Bingbing as the mermaid, and Bill Nighy as Père De La Chaise, a character created for the movie.The website's consensus reads: "A muddled mess that was clearly tinkered with in post-production to little avail, The King's Daughter is a royal disappointment."[23] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 31 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.