Production Commences on Anna Karenina

Working Title Films has commenced filming on Joe Wright’s epic love story Anna Karenina, adapted from Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel by Academy Award winner Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love).  The film will shoot in the UK and Russia.  Universal Pictures International (UPI) will distribute the movie internationally and Focus Features will distribute in North America.

Anna Karenina marks Wright’s fourth film with Working Title, following the award-winning box office successes Pride & Prejudice and Atonement and The Soloist. The film is produced by Working Title co-chairmen Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner and reunites them with Paul Webster, all three of whom produced Wright’s first two films Pride & Prejudice and  Atonement.

Keira Knightley, Academy Award-nominated for Pride & Prejudice, will star as Anna Karenina in her third collaboration with Wright.  Knightley stars opposite two-time Academy Award nominee Jude Law, as Anna’s husband Aleksei Karenin; and Aaron Johnson (Nowhere Boy), as Count Vronsky. Rounding out the cast are Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire), Matthew Macfadyen (Pride & Prejudice), Domhnall Gleeson (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), Alicia Vikander (The Seventh Son), two-time Academy Award nominee Emily Watson, Olivia Williams (Hanna), and Ruth Wilson (Luther).

Also reteaming with Wright on Anna Karenina are Academy Award-winning composer Dario Marianelli, twice-Academy Award-nominated costume designer Jacqueline Durran, three-time Academy Award-nominated production designer Sarah Greenwood and the Academy Award-nominated director of photography Seamus McGarvey.  Melanie Ann Oliver (Jane Eyre) is the editor. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui is the choreographer.

The story unfolds in its original late-19^th-century Russia high-society setting and powerfully explores the capacity for love that surges through the human heart, from the passion between adulterers to the bond between a mother and her children. As Anna questions her happiness, change comes to her family, friends, and community.