Lacey Bridges
Gary Oldman stars as Winston Churchill for director Joe Wright in ”Darkest Hour”, which has begun production in the U.K. Focus Features holds worldwide rights to the Working Title Films production as part of the company’s renewed global initiative. Focus will release Darkest Hour domestically on November 24th, 2017 in the U.S. and Universal Pictures International (UPI) will distribute the film globally, beginning with the U.K. on December 29th, 2017.
The original screenplay of Darkest Hour is by Anthony McCarten, an Academy Award nominee and BAFTA Award winner as screenwriter of Focus and Working Title’s Best Picture Oscar nominee ”The Theory of Everything”. Mr. McCarten and Academy Award nominee and BAFTA Award winner Lisa Bruce (”The Theory of Everything”) are producing Darkest Hour with Working Title co-chairs Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, and BAFTA Award winner Douglas Urbanski (”Nil by Mouth”), reteaming with Focus and Working Title following ”Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,” for which Mr. Oldman was a Best Actor Oscar nominee.
The filmmaking team includes costume designer Jacqueline Durran, an Academy Award winner for her work on Mr. Wright’s ”Anna Karenina” for Focus and Working Title; production designer Sarah Greenwood, who has received Academy Award nominations for three previous movies directed by Mr. Wright (”Anna Karenina”, ”Atonement”, ”Pride & Prejudice”) for Focus and Working Title; composer Dario Marianelli, an Academy Award winner for scoring Mr. Wright’s ”Atonement” for Focus and Working Title; director of photography Bruno Delbonnel, a four-time Academy Award nominee; editor Valerio Bonelli (”Florence Foster Jenkins”); make-up and hair designer Ivana Primorac, who has collaborated with Mr. Wright on four previous movies including Focus’ ”Hanna”; and two-time Academy Award nominee Kazuhiro Tsuji, who will be prosthetics designer on ”Darkest Hour”.
Within days of becoming Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill must face one of his most turbulent and defining trials: exploring a negotiated peace treaty with Nazi Germany, or standing firm to fight for the ideals, liberty and freedom of a nation. As the unstoppable Nazi forces roll across Western Europe and the threat of invasion is imminent, and with an unprepared public, a skeptical King, and his own party plotting against him, Churchill must withstand his darkest hour, rally a nation, and attempt to change the course of world history.
Joining Mr. Oldman in the cast are Stephen Dillane, John Hurt, Lily James, Ben Mendelsohn, and Kristin Scott Thomas.
Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner have been co-chairs of Working Title Films, one of the world’s leading film production companies, since 1992. Working Title has made more than 100 films that have grossed over $6 billion worldwide, including over $1 billion at the U.K. box office. Its films have won 12 Academy Awards (for Tom Hooper’s ”Les Misérables” and ”The Danish Girl”; James Marsh’s ”The Theory of Everything”; Tim Robbins’ ”Dead Man Walking”; Joel and Ethan Coen’s ”Fargo”; Shekhar Kapur’s ”Elizabeth” and ”Elizabeth: The Golden Age”; and Joe Wright’s Atonement and Anna Karenina), 39 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards, and prizes at the Cannes and Berlin International Film Festivals.
Mr. Bevan and Mr. Fellner have been honored with the Producers Guild of America’s David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures, the PGA’s highest honor for motion picture producers. They have been accorded two of the highest film awards given to British filmmakers: the Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema award at the BAFTA Awards, and the Alexander Walker Film Award at the Evening Standard British Film Awards. They have also both been honored with CBEs (Commanders of the Order of the British Empire).
