Nolan Fans

Joe Wright has some experience bringing scenes set in and around World War II thanks to Atonement (and, to a lesser extent, the opening of Pan). So he seems like a solid choice to turn The Theory Of Everything writer Anthony McCarten's Churchill passion project Darkest Hour into a reality.

Darkest Hour is set in 1940, when Churchill was in his first days as Prime Minister. With Britain under serious threat from Germany and the tide looking likely to turn further, Churchill was under pressure to strike a deal with Hitler that would see Britain effectively become a Third Reich puppet stake. He wrestled with the decision and ultimately decided... well, you know how it turned out. Unless you're somehow reading this from an alternate world where things went badly.

Given Wright's history with Working Title, which produced Atonement, this would seem to b close to a done deal, and indeed the project is moving swiftly towards shooting in the summer with a search on to find the right actor to play Churchill. Wright has also been working on an episode of the new Black Mirror series commissioned by Netflix, which will hopefully be on our screens sooner rather than later.

He shall fight on the beaches. Gary Oldman is in talks to play Winston Churchill in Brit production powerhouse Working Title’s Darkest Hour. Joe Wright is directing the epic drama, which takes place in 1940 as Churchill becomes Prime Minister in the midst of World War II and faces a moment of truth. Anthony McCarten, who wrote Working Title’s award-winning The Theory Of Everything, writes and produces here alongside Lisa Bruce and Working Title co-chiefs Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner.

The heavyweight filmmaking talent assembling here puts this Churchill project at the very top of the tree. Oldman seems an inspired choice to play Britain’s greatest wartime leader. The actor has a string of memorable performances in his illustrious career, not least as John Le Carre’s iconic intelligence agent George Smiley in Working Title’s big screen adaptation of classic novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. While Oldman’s Smiley was a masterpiece of subtlety and hidden emotions, the actor can do explosive too. Just witness his unhinged NY cop in Luc Besson’s Leon or his memorably baroque, romantic performance in Dracula for Francis Ford Coppola.

Production is set to start in July.

Days into his new job as Prime Minister as Britain was getting pounded and on the verge of losing to Germany, Churchill was under pressure to make a deal with Hitler that would have established Britain as a puppet state of the Third Reich. His army stranded in Dunkirk, Churchill instead summoned the courage to fight on. The film is about his decisions, and the actions and immortal speeches in those critical days that defined his place in history and changed the destiny of the world. The prospect of having an actor the calibre of Oldman recreating Churchill’s iconic speeches, when he galvanised a country in the face of appeasement of Nazi Germany, is tantalising.

The pic has been a passion project for McCarten, whose The Theory Of Everything grossed $125 million worldwide on a $15 million budget and won numerous awards, including the Best Actor Oscar for Eddie Redmayne.

As ever, Oldman has a number of films in the can and the pipelines. Ariel Vromen’s Criminal, where he stars opposite Ryan Reynolds and Kevin Costner comes out this weekend domestically via Lionsgate. Oldman has also completed Peter Chelsom’s The Space Between Us with Carla Gugino and Asa Butterfield.

Oldman is repped by longtime partner Douglas Urbanski’s Douglas Management Group, Agency for the Performing Arts and Special Artists Agency.

The Film Stage ‏@TheFilmStage
Joe Wright's Gary Oldman-led Winston Churchill drama 'Darkest Hour' will open on November 24, 2017.

Also on tap for Darkest Hour is John Hurt as Neville Chamberlain (who Churchill succeeded as Prime Minister), Lily James as Churchill’s personal secretary, Ben Mendelsohn as King George VI, and Kristen Scott Thomas as Churchill’s wife Clementine.

Morrie's_Wig wrote: Ben Mendelsohn as King George VI