Meghan Markle and Prince Harry aren’t the only royals working on projects for Netflix. Crown Princess Mary of Denmark’s mother-in-law, Queen Margrethe II , is on the creative team for the streaming giant’s upcoming Danish feature film, Ehrengard.
The movie, based on Karen Blixen’s novel of the same name, will feature set design by Crown Prince Frederik’s 81-year-old mother, who according to Netflix has “been actively engaged in a number of artistic modes of expression: painting, church textiles, watercolours, prints, book illustrations, découpage works, scenography and embroidery,” since 1970. The Queen is an honorary member of the Association of Danish Scenographers.
“Karen Blixen’s stories have always fascinated me, with their aesthetic tales, their imagination and their, to me, image-creating worlds - and I’m very happy to be part of this project. You can feel that the author was a visual artist just like H.C. Andersen. But who is Ehrengard? One of Karen Blixen’s intriguing female characters and one of the few whose story ends happily,” Queen Margrethe said in a statement.
“The intrigues weave themselves in and out of each other and Blixen spins her spin around the characters until we (and they) are completely nonplussed. How will the riddle be solved? I have tried to interpret Blixen’s fantastic universe in the creation of the découpages and costumes and I’m looking forward to seeing the tale of Ehrengard come to life in this film,” Her Majesty continued.
Director Bille August said that the Danish Queen “has created the most fantastic decoupages for the occasion, and they will be the dominant feature of the film’s overall scenographic expression.” Ehrengard is scheduled to be released globally on Netflix in 2023.
It was announced last year that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who are no longer working members of the British royal family, had inked a deal with Netflix. “Our focus will be on creating content that informs but also gives hope. As new parents, making inspirational family programming is also important to us,” they told the New York Times at the time. Archewell Productions announced its first Netflix project, Heart of Invictus, back in April and an animated series created by Meghan, with the working title Pearl , in July.