Steve Coogan and Stephen Frears to collaborate on The Lost King

Steve Coogan and Stephen Frears are teaming again up with screenwriter Jeff Pope to work on The Lost King, a new comedy-drama for Pathe.

The trio is reuniting for the project, having previously worked together on 2015's Philomena, which received four Oscar nominations. As with Philomena, Pope and Coogan will co-write the script for The Lost King, with Frears in the director's chair.

Based on real-life events, The Lost King will tell the story of Philippa Langley, a historian who suffered mockery from her peers due to her obsession with searching for the remains of King Richard III, the location of which had remained a mystery for over 500 years. When Langley successfully exhumed the King's bones from a car park in Leicester in 2012, the finding drew widespread interest and media attention.

According to Deadline, along with crafting the screenplay, Coogan will co-star in the film as Langley's husband, although the character of Langley herself is yet to be cast.

The publication reported that Coogan had first discussed the project in 2017 when he commented: “this Richard film is about the amateur versus the establishment, and intuition versus academia”.

Production on the project is set to commence in the spring of 2021.