Joe Wright's Darkest Hour film stars Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Lily James; In US Theaters November 2017!

I previously posted here last March that Pride & Prejudice director Joe Wright is in talks to direct another Churchill related movie, titled Darkest Hour. Here's an update with a confirmation of JW directing the WWII film with recent casting and theatrical release dates announced for both US and International. Also, with production and filming underway, JW is reteaming with Working Title Films (formerly Working Title Productions) and Focus Features, which will be his 4th feature film after P&P, Atonement, and Anna Karenina and 5th after Hanna (Focus Features).

The main cast are interesting choices with Gary Oldman as PM Winston Churchill, Kristin Scott Thomas as Churchill's wife Clementine, and as Churchill's personal secretary Elizabeth Nel. John Hurt and Ben Mendelsohn also star. Looks like no P&P actor, for the first time, is part of JW's new film, unless one or two of them who frequently works with him makes a cameo. We shall see...This will also be the third JW film (with Hanna and PAN, being the other two) without Keira Knightley (with whom he directed on three of his award winning films including his feature film debut, Pride & Prejudice 2005) on it.

Read more Darkest Hour casting and theatrical releases info. via Deadline below...

Focus Features is reteaming with Working Title Films and Joe Wright on Darkest Hour which will hit U.S. theaters on Nov. 24, 2017 with Universal Pictures International launching overseas on Dec. 29, 2017. Production begins this fall. Darkest Hour marks Wright’s fourth feature with Working Title and Focus after Pride & Prejudice, Atonement and Anna Karenina. Wright also directed the Focus thriller Hanna starring Saoirse Ronan.

Wright will direct Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in the film which is penned by Theory of Everything‘s Anthony McCarten. He is producing as well on Darkest Hour with Lisa Bruce and Working Title co-chairs Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. Also on tap for Darkest Hour is John Hurt as Neville Chamberlain (who Churchill succeeded as Prime Minster), Lily James as Churchill’s personal secretary, Ben Mendelsohn as King George VI and Kristen Scott Thomas as Churchill’s wife Clementine.


Darkest Hour‘s plot is described as follows: 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.

Wright’s canon with Focus Features and Working Title has amassed two Oscars, two Golden Globe Awards, and four BAFTA wins.

Also, via Focus Features: Darkest Hour To Be Released in November 2017

LONDON, September 6th, 2016 – Continuing creative collaborations that began over a decade ago, premier specialty label Focus Features is reteaming with both Working Title Films, one of the world’s leading film production companies, and director Joe Wright on Darkest Hour. Focus will hold worldwide rights to the film 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 around the world, beginning with the U.K. on December 29th, 2017. Production on Darkest Hour begins this fall.