Digging for truth
Steve Coogan unearths injustice with 'The Lost King'
“The Lost King” reveals how one woman, passionate for the truth, upended centuries of misinformation about England’s hunchback King Richard III and, somewhat miraculously, found his remains buried in a car park.
Philippa Langley (Sally Hawkins, “The Shape of Water”) became driven to unearth what was real and what was pure fantasy about the legendary king, a result of Tudor politics and a playwright named William Shakespeare who situated him among England’s greatest villains.
Her research led to a remarkable re-appraisal of Richard III — and then to his anonymously buried bones. Followed by enormous injustice as the University of Leicester tried to take full credit for Langley’s work.
Steve Coogan, who cowrote the screenplay and costars, was Oscar nominated for another, similar true life story in “Philomena” (2013) where another ordinary woman, an Irish mother looking for the son she never knew, was also stigmatized by the male establishment. For “Philomena” Coogan was Oscar nominated for his
Adapted Screenplay and as Best Picture.
When he met Langley who charted her research, discovery and subsequent difficulties in her 2013 book “The King’s Grave: The Search for Richard III,” he was immediately intrigued.
“Philippa Langley and her quest to find the body of Richard III was such a great story, Jeff and I felt we had to write this.”
Over lunch, “She told me the ‘uncensored version’ of her experience in pursuing her search for the body. Once she told me the details, I knew there was a movie in it.
“Because just finding the body of that king against the odds is kind of interesting — but sort of not as well. But the marginalization! The fact that she was reduced to little more than a footnote in the official account from the academic establishment! That’s why I wanted to make this: As a way to redress that imbalance. It was a mission in some ways.
“It’s always good,” Coogan, 57, concluded on Zoom from his London flat, “to couple an interesting story with a sense of injustice. Because it gets my dander up.”
While accurate about the facts and setbacks of Langley’s crusade, onscreen Philippa has visions of and converses with King Richard — which didn’t happen.
“She did not have visions,” Coogan said. “But she did tell us that she had conversations in her head with him. And is still having these imaginary conversations.
“We go one step further and bring that to life which helped us get a humanized Richard. Certainly not just an academic reference point because we see him as real person.”
“The Lost King” opens March 24