Dame Helen Mirren's The Duke delayed

Dame Helen Mirren's new film 'The Duke' has been delayed.

The 76-year-old actress stars in the comedy-drama movie with Jim Broadbent but has postponed until next spring as bosses fear that older audience members may not see the movie due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

A film source told The Sun newspaper's Bizarre column: "The producers fear the older audience it will attract are too scared to turn up to cinemas.

"It's obviously incredibly frustrating for bosses but just as we've seen with the James Bond movie, there's not really much of a choice. It's the difference between making money on the film or not."

The movie centres on the true story of the 1961 theft of Goya's portrait of the Duke of Wellington from London's National Gallery by a taxi driver and had been initially set for release last year, but was delayed due to COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Helen recently confessed how she hated filming under coronavirus restrictions.

The Oscar-winning actress said: "You can't all meet people and have a chat with the sound guy. I am looking forward to the time when all this will be over."

Helen previously explained how she hoped to become the first female Bond villain after being cast as the antagonist Hespera in the upcoming DC Extended Universe (DCEU) movie 'Shazam! Fury of the Gods'.

'The Queen' star said: "I have not often played the main villain.

"When they were doing James Bond, I was like, 'Why don't they have a fabulous female villain?' All the villains were always male and I was like, 'Come on guys ... have a great female villain.'

"And they never did that. And I bet they do on the next one now."