Rush and Owen Enter 'The Golden Age'

Rumors coming to life.

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Thursday, September 1st 2005 at 4:01 PM

A sequel to the Oscar-winning flick Elizabeth has been given the go ahead over at Working Title and Universal Pictures with Geoffrey Rush and Clive Owen set to join Cate Blanchett back as Elizabeth herself, a role for which Blanchett received much acclaim.

The film is titled The Golden Age and will focus on the relationship between Elizabeth I and Walter Raleigh, to be played by Owen. The first pic focused on the transformation of the young woman into a steely monarch in the 16th century. Rush will return as Sir Francis Walsingham, who in the first film was the architect of the queen's ruthless campaign to solidify her power and stabilize rule in England.

Filming is scheduled to begin in April from William Nicholson's script with Shekhar Kapur back to helm the sequel.

One bit of noteworthy information regarding this story however comes out of those Aussies over at Moviehole who are quoting today's Herald Sun saying:

Blanchett essentially says she's not interested in repeating herself, and that a sequel to Elizabeth isn't really necessary.

"No, everyone keeps asking me that. I'm really good friends with Shekhar [Kapur] and he's forever saying he's going to do this movie or that movie and I think there was talk about it", she explains. "There's so much there if it were to happen, but my initial instinct is, why?"

If Blanchett is indeed having doubts I don't see how they could make a sequel without her, considering what she brings to the role. It isn't like this is a 1980s Batman movie where you can simply switch the lead actor.