Queen Elizabeth II to 'play herself' in big screen film, announces director Roger Michell

Queen Elizabeth II's life has been documented in a number of movies and series over the years, with the actresses playing the British monarch winning accolades and awards for their work. In a first, the queen will "play herself" in a new cinematic film being made by acclaimed director Roger Michell.

British director Roger Michell, who has won several awards in his impressive career spanning over four decades, has revealed that he has already started working on a biopic documenting the queen's life as a monarch and as a young princess. In a recent conversation with Daily Mail, Michell shared that he will be using archival footage of the 94-year-old to make a "celebratory, irreverent collage of her extraordinary life."

"It's a truly cinematic mystery tour, up and down the decades; playful, poetic, funny, disobedient, ungovernable, affectionate, inappropriate and mischievous...but, in awe," Michell said.

The 64-year-old, who recently charmed the Venice Film Festival with his retro British comedy "The Duke" starring Mirren and Jim Broadbent, is also appealing to the public to contribute footage of the queen for the film. Michell noted that he is especially looking for reels of film taken on Super-8 cameras that are "forgotten in your loft with a bit of footage of the Queen as she came to open your local whatever it was."

"The people's view of the Queen is what we're looking for. She is, after all, the people's Queen," he said.

Michell, who won awards for directing Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant in 1999 classic film "Notting Hill," is collaborating with acclaimed producer Kevin Loader for the biopic. They have also signed top editor Joanna Crickmay and archivist Emily Thomas who will spend the next six months with Michell poring over reels of film.

"It's a lovely thing to do for the next several months," he noted.

The team has already uncovered a rare piece of footage of the queen and her father from the time when he was Prince Albert, Duke of York, and the duo had never imagined sitting on the throne as Prince Edward VIII had no plans of abdication back then.

"It's about 93 years old and it shows her dad, bringing little baby Elizabeth out for the movie cameras. She's a very young, sweet-looking bundle. It feels as old as the cinema – it's not – but it's fabulous," Michell said.

"She has been our constant. I think she's drilled into our subconscious. I think we dream about her! I think that her impact on our waking and dreaming moments is enormous, and very hard to over-estimate," Michell added about the queen who is the world's longest-living reigning monarch and Britain's longest-serving monarch with her 68-year reign.