Oscar-winning film director, Martin Scorsese is to make a feature-length film about the personalities behind Rolls Royce's iconic Spirit of Ecstacy mascot.
The Spirit of Ecstasy Image: Beaulieu Estate |
The film will explain the complicated relationship between one of Europe's motoring pioneers, Lord John Douglas-Scott Montagu of Beaulieu, his wife, mistress and the founders of the luxury Rolls Royce Marque.
While the biopic will focus on the personalities, it will also reveal the creation of the now iconic silver Spirit of Ecstasy, or Flying Lady, bonnet mascot that still adorns almost every Rolls Royce produced. The mascot was, according to the story, Montagu's memorial to his secretary and mistress, Eleanor Velasco Thornton, after she died when her ship was torpedoed during the First World War.
According to Scorsese,: "When I read the story of SILVER GHOST, I was mesmerised. I immediately thought: this is a picture that has to be made. And when I was asked to come aboard as a Producer alongside Richard Attenborough and Anthony Haas, I didn't hesitate for a moment."
Lord Montagu's son, Edward, founded - and remains the Chairman of - the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu (pronounced Bewley) in the South of England, which houses some 250 vehicles and tells the story of motoring in Britain from its earliest times to present day.