Oscar-winning actress Dame Judi Dench will play Queen Victoria in Working Title Films’ “Victoria and Abdul.”

According to a press release, the film is slated to go into production this year for release in 2017.

The feature is based on Shrabani Basu’s book “Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen’s Closest Confidant.” Lee Hall (“Billy Elliot”) adapted the screenplay.

The film tells the “extraordinary true story of an unexpected friendship in the later years of Queen Victoria’s remarkable rule. When Abdul Karim, a young clerk, travels from India to participate in the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, he is surprised to find favor with the Queen herself. As the Queen questions the constrictions of her long-held position, the two forge an unlikely and devoted alliance with a loyalty to one another that her household and inner circle all attempt to destroy. As the friendship deepens, the Queen begins to see a changing world through new eyes and joyfully reclaims her humanity.”

This will mark Dench’s second time playing Queen Victoria. She earned an Academy Award nomination for portraying her in 1997’s “Mrs. Brown.” Dench also earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing another Queen, Victoria’s distant ancestor Elizabeth I, in “Shakespeare in Love.”

Stephen Frears (“The Queen”) is set to direct. Focus Features will release the movie in the U.S.