Regal Cate is crowning for glory once more as Elizabeth I

Donning her red wig and tightening her corset strings one more time, the Australian star, 38, has reprised her breakthrough role of the English monarch to dazzling effect.

Her performance could well seal her status as the heir apparent to Meryl Streep's crown as Hollywood's greatest living actress and earn her a third Oscar nomination.

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Regal Cate reprises her role as Queen Elizabeth I in The Golden Age

Surprisingly, playing the indomitable Queen held very little appeal for Blanchett the first time round when she dismissed the part as an "ego trip for someone, but it's not going to be for me".

"I don't think I wanted to play Elizabeth I in the first place," she recently told The Guardian.

"I remember reading the script and saying, 'Wow, this is going to be an ego trip for someone, but it's not going to be for me' - but there I was, having an ego trip."

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Cate repeatedly declined to appear in any sequel, saying she couldn't see the point of it - until she read the script of this one

Will Cate pick up her second Academy Award for her luminous performance?

Whereas Elizabeth I looked at the early years of her reign, director Shekhar Kapur explores the relationship between the Queen and the adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh this time round in Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

The all-star cast includes Clive Owen, Samantha Morton and up-and-coming Australian actress Abbie Cornish, while Geoffrey Rush returns as Sir Francis Walsingham.

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Up-and-coming Australian actress Abbie Cornish joins Cate as Elizabeth Throckmorton

Clive Owen and Samantha Morton also join the all-star cast

"I've remained really good friends with Shekhar (Kapur, the director), and he and Geoffrey Rush had been talking about (the Elizabeth sequel) The Golden Age for a long time," Blanchett said.

"I kept saying no because I couldn't see why.

"But suddenly there was this fantastic script that had the potential to talk about a woman approaching middle age; and I thought that, if the first film was about denial, this one, in a way, is about acceptance of that ageing process," Blanchett added.

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The Golden Age explores the relationship between Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh

Besides playing Elizabeth I, Blanchett has four other movies to hit the big screen over the next 12 months - including her Bob Dylan-inspired role in I'm Not There and the Fourth Installment of the Indiana Jones Adventures opposite Harrison Ford.

However the mother-of-two plans a three-year break from the cinema in 2008 to concentrate on her next real-life role - that of co-artisic director of the Sydney Theatre Company alongside her husband, screenwriter Andrew Upton.

Another star turn: Cate as the Bob Dylan-inspired Jude in I'm Not There