Bill Murray as FDR in "Hyde Park on Hudson"

Credit: Focus Features

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Focus Features has an interesting little slate of films to pitch this season. There's Wes Anderson's latest, "Moonrise Kingdom," which opened Cannes earlier this week to mostly favorable reviews. Indeed, I found it to be one of his best, a charming mark of maturation for the filmmaker. There's also Joe Wright's big adaptation "Anna Karenina," which looks to be the heavyweight in the stable.

Then there's "Hyde Park on Hudson," director Roger Michell's latest. From the official synopsis: "In June 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor host the King and Queen of England for a weekend at the Roosevelt home at Hyde Park on Hudson, in upstate New York – the first-ever visit of a reigning English monarch to America. With Britain facing imminent war with Germany, the Royals are desperately looking to FDR for support.

"But international affairs must be juggled with the complexities of FDR’s domestic establishment, as wife, mother, and mistresses all conspire to make the royal weekend an unforgettable one. Seen through the eyes of Daisy, Franklin’s neighbor and intimate, the weekend will produce not only a special relationship between two great nations, but, for Daisy – and through her, for us all – a deeper understanding of the mysteries of love and friendship."

The project has been interesting for me sight-unseen because Bill Murray is tackling the role of Roosevelt. We don't get a really clear idea of what he's bringing with his performance in the first trailer for the film (though he certainly seems wry and affable), nor Laura Linney, who plays Daisy. Though it does seem to me that Olivia Williams could be a delightful barb as first lady Elenor Roosevelt. Samuel West and Olivia Colman also star as King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. The script was written by Richard Nelson, based on his radio play.

Have a look at the new trailer below, courtesy of Yahoo! Movies, as well as the first poster for the film.

Kristopher Tapley
Editor-at-Large

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Kristopher Tapley has covered the film awards landscape for over a decade. He founded In Contention in 2005. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Times of London and Variety. He begs you not to take any of this too seriously.