Focus Features may have three awards season players with “Nocturnal Animals,” “Loving” and “A Monster Calls” this year, but the studio is already planning for 2017 and beyond. The longtime prestige player announced today it would be distributing Working Title’s “Darkest Hour” on Nov. 24, 2017. That means Joe Wright and Gary Oldman are back in the Oscar game.
READ MORE: ‘La La Land,’ ‘Moonlight,” ‘Sully’ And Amy Adams Are Telluride’s Oscar Breakouts
“Darkest Hour” finds Oldman playing Winston Churchill in the days and weeks after he was first elected Prime Minister of the U.K. in May 1940. According to a release from Focus, the original screenplay by Oscar nominee Anthony McCarten (“The Theory of Everything”) centers on “Churchill [facing] 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.”
The rest of the impressive cast revealed this morning includes John Hurt as Neville Chamberlain (a “Tinker Tailor Solider Spy” reunion); Lily James (“Cinderella”) as Churchill’s personal secretary; Ben Mendelsohn as King George VI (“Bloodline”); and Academy Award nominee Kristin Scott Thomas as Churchill’s wife Clementine.
Wright has a long history with Focus, having directed “Hanna,” “Anna Karenina,” “Pride & Prejudice” and Best Picture nominee “Atonement.” Despite his stellar resumé, Wright still hasn’t been recognized by either the Academy or his peers in the Director’s Guild Of America. His most recent endeavour, “Pan,” with Hugh Jackman, was a massive bomb for Warner Bros. last year
Oldman earned Academy Award and BAFTA Award nominations for his performance in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” which Focus Features released in 2011. Nothing would make his legion of fans happier than for him to take home an Oscar this time around. His upcoming slate includes “The Space Between Us” on Dec. 21, “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” with Ryan Reynolds next August, and “Hunter Killer” opposite Gerard Butler, which is currently still in production.
Focus Chairman Peter Kujawski remarked, “Everyone at Focus is proud to be the longtime home to Joe Wright and our partners at Working Title, and thrilled to once again be working with the gifted Anthony McCarten and the legendary Gary Oldman. “Darkest Hour” is about a visionary leader who stood firm in the face of tremendous pressure to abandon his unique point of view on the world, so it is fitting that his story will be told by these visionary filmmakers.”
“Darkest Hour” is currently scheduled to open Nov. 24, 2017.
