Queen of the Desert

Queen of the Desert is an upcoming epic biographical drama film written and directed by Werner Herzog and is based on the life of British traveller, writer, archaeologist, explorer, cartographer and political officer Gertrude Bell.^[5][6] The film stars Nicole Kidman,James Franco, Damian Lewis and Robert Pattinson

Production began for film in December 2013.^[1] Raslan, one of the producers of the film, said, "It is great to be working again on this epic story, as Ms. Bell has been called the female Lawrence of Arabia."^[6] Kidman, talking about her role, said, "She's the female Lawrence of Arabia. She was English, and basically defined the borders between Iraq and Jordan that exist today, borders that she negotiated between Churchill and different Arab leaders. She went out to the desert with the Bedouin and all the different tribes that were feuding at the turn of the 19th century."

Pattinson talking about portraying T. E. Lawrence, said that "It’s sort of close to the real guy, it’s certainly not [the film] Lawrence of Arabia-like, at the same time the guy was really small and I’m not physically kind of right for the part, but I think I have quite a good little handle of who he is. After I got cast I started researching and there are certain things you can’t do as I’m just not physically the same so I had to invent it a little bit, and it’s a small part as well. The film’s about Gertrude Bell, it’s really not about making Lawrence of Arabia."^[

Lewis grew a mustache for his role in the film; in November 2013 he said, "I'm actually going to do a film with Werner Herzog just after Christmas, and [with] Nicole Kidman, and he [his character] is an Edwardian German. Takes place in the First World War and he has an amazing, kind of handlebar moustache ... so I started early to try just to try and get there."

A major portion of the filming took place in Morocco. Fifty actors (apart from main cast), more than 1,500 extras and 65 technicians, all Moroccan, participated.

Filming began on 20 December, 2013. Herzog shot background scenes and establishing shots without the principal cast in Merzouga,Morocco and Petra, Jordan.^{[21][22][23][24][25][26][27]} Principal photography with the main cast started in Merzouga on 13 January, 2014.^[28][29]Filming also took place at Marrakesh and Arfoud and continued till 26 February, 2014, in Ouarzazate, Morocco.^[19][30][31] After Morocco, filming moved to London^[32] and finished on 6 March, 2014.