The contexts to which Queen of the South applies is about to be increased with a little Hollywood glamour…
In 2002 Spanish journalist turned novelist Arturo Pérez-Reverte released his book ‘La Reina del Sur’, ‘The Queen of the South’ when translated into English. It is this publication that has led to a Hollywood cinematisation starring Eva Mendes in the lead role. It appears that when the film production is completed the movie will be released as ‘Queen of the South’, without ‘The’ in the title. Along with Mendes in the starring roles are Josh Hartnett and Sir Ben Kingsley.
The story takes place in multiple transatlantic locations – Mexico, Morocco and Spain. Southern Scotland does not appear to be among them. The film production has not been without issues. The plot centres around narcotics trafficking and drugs cartels. Filming was scheduled to take place in Sinalao in Mexico’s North West. However, following security concerns, director Jonathan Jakubowicz was reported in Variety in 2009 as saying,
"We wanted to shoot in the city of Culiacan in Sinaloa, northern Mexico, the epicentre of the drug wars, but it just wasn`t possible. The safety of my family and my team comes first, and making this movie put us all at risk, not only in Mexico but in the U.S." A 5 – 1 home defeat doesn’t seem so bad. The film is expected to be released in 2011.
As an American born to Cuban parents, an allegiance for Ms Mendes to Queen of the South FC would be optimistic in even being described as unlikely. However should she ever join the list of Hollywood stars to be in or around the Dumfries area, old friend of QoS FC, Robert Duvall, can of course be relied upon to provide her with a reference that she can expect a warm welcome at Palmerston Park.
Dumfries got its nickname Queen of the South from David Dunbar, a local poet, who in 1857 stood for Parliament in the General Election. In one of his addresses, he called Dumfries "Queen of the South" and this became synonymous with the town.
Some more other uses of Queen of the South on top of that as Dumfries’ best known football team:-
* Many Queens fan’s favourite quiz question points to the reference to Queen of the South in the bible - Matthew 12:42 and Luke 11:31 are the references for anyone wishing to question the accuracy of the following:-
“The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here."
It is believed that in the bible the Queen of the South referred to is the Queen of Sheba.
* As was mentioned on qosfc.com at the time of the publication of the interview with him, music producer, QoS fan and out of the box thinker Bill Drummond has an instrumental track on his 1986 album, ‘The Man’, titled Queen of the South.
* In Adelaide in 2007 a new addition to the horse racing calendar was the Queen of the South Stakes held at Morphettville Racecourse.
As well as referencing some of the above, photographer and former high heid yin of the QoS web team, Colin Johnstone, also mentioned the following in an article previously published on qosfc.com on other uses of Queen of the South:-
* A late nineteenth century sailing ship plying its` trade taking immigrants to Australia from London and Liverpool and landing in Queensland.
* A show jumping horse competing in Belgium.
* A catering supply company in Belgium.
* An antiques shop in Hasseltweg, Belgium.
* A battleship, the USS Queen of the South of the Union Navy in the American Civil War was sunk by the Confederate ship the CSS Arkansas at the mouth of the Yazoo River in 1862.
* A steam train that ran between Cincinnati and Chattanooga between 1929 and 1945, actually called the Queen and Crescent but known as the Queen of the South.
* A ladies Masonic order in the USA, whose colours are also blue and white.
* A three star tourist hotel in Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia.
* An song on The Divine Comedy`s album of 1993, titled Liberation, although the lyrics have nothing to do with football.
* A poem by C W Pearsall named Queen of the South.
* Other towns and cities claiming to various degrees to be the Queen of the South, for example Melbourne in Australia, Ghent in Belgium and Atlanta in the USA to name but a few.
As well as this, techie types will tell you that QoS is a widely used term in computer networking. In this context QoS stands for Quality of Service.