‘Darkest Hour’ will tell the story of Winston Churchill’s first days in office as Prime Minister of Great Britain.
Focus Features is teaming up with Working Title Films and director Joe Wright to produce a movie about Winston Churchill’s rocky beginnings as the Prime Minister of Great Britain. Academy Award winner Gary Oldman as Churchill will be joined on screen by John Hurt as Neville Chamberlain, whom Churchill succeeded as Prime Minister, Lily James (Downton Abbey, Cinderella) as Churchill’s personal secretary, Golden Globe Award nominee Ben Mendelsohn as King George VI, and Academy Award nominee Kristin Scott Thomas as Churchill’s wife, Clementine.
Darkest Hour is Joe Wright’s, BAFTA Award winner, fourth feature with Working Title and Focus. The director’s previous films with the companies were Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, and Anna Karenina, which combined won two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and four BAFTA Awards. He also directed for Focus the hit thriller Hanna, starring Saoirse Ronan.
The film will follow Winston Churchill within days of becoming Prime Minister of Great Britain, as he 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.
