‘Theory Of Everything’s Anthony McCarten & Working Title Set Winston Churchill WWII Epic
After The Theory Of Everything garnered five Oscar nominations including Best Picture, writer-producer Anthony McCarten has signed a deal to work alongside producer Lisa Bruce and Working Title partners Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan for a 2016 production start for the epic WWII drama Darkest Hour, a spec script that McCarten crafted around Winston Churchill and the make-or-break moment of truth he faced in 1940.
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 formalization of this film comes on the 50th anniversary of the passing of Churchill. This WWII flashpoint has been a long fascination for McCarten, who turned to this passion project after spending a decade getting Jane and Stephen Hawking to trust his vision to turn their complicated marriage into a film that has grossed $82 million worldwide on a $15 million budget
“We aim to present a Churchill you haven’t seen before, a new portrait that shows all his famous strengths but also adds new dimensions, such as the grave doubts he privately harbored, the dark moods that would seize him unexpectedly and his fear of failure, a driving force that is often is left out of any discussion of the man,” McCarten said. “It is enormously exciting to be embarking on another project with Lisa Bruce and the Working Title team.”
McCarten was born and raised in New Plymouth, and now splits his time between London, Los Angeles and Munich. He’s currently at work adapting Hack Attack: The Inside Story of How The Truth Caught Up With Rupert Murdoch by Nick Davies for George Clooney and Sony Pictures.
Working Title’s Tim Bevan is a New Zealander from Queenstown.
Source: Deadline, February 5, 2015
Author: Mike Fleming Jr
Image: Empire Online
