Anna Karenina

[dremble wedge]

A new British version of Anna Karenina will be released next year, directed by Joe Wright and starring Keira Knightley. The pair of them have done farily well in their last two collaboratons, so it may be worthwhile.

BBC News - Keira Knightley to play Anna Karenina in new film

Keira Knightley to play Anna Karenina in new film
Keira Knightley and Jude Law are to star in a British film adaptation of Anna Karenina, it has been announced.
Oscar-winning writer Tom Stoppard will pen the script and Atonement film-maker Joe Wright will direct the epic romance, based on Leo Tolstoy's novel.
Knightley will play Anna, a married woman who has an affair with a younger soldier. Law has landed the role of her husband, Aleksei Karenin.
The film, which casts Aaron Johnson as Count Vronsky, is due out next year.
Anna Karenina will be Knightley's third collaboration with Wright. She starred in his 2005 film Pride And Prejudice, followed by the Academy Award-winning movie Atonement two years later.
The Working Title production will begin filming in the UK and Russia this month.
"We anticipate that this will be a defining screen version of Anna Karenina," said Tim Bevan, of Working Title Films.
James Schamus, from Focus Features - who will distribute the film, said: "Joe Wright is a master film-maker, and with Tom Stoppard's brilliant screenplay this Anna Karenina will be full of both pageantry and emotion."
Set in late 19th-century Russia, Anna Karenina is described as a powerful tale that "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".
There have been several film versions of Tolstoy's classic novel, including adaptations starring Vivien Leigh (1948) and Greta Garbo (1935).
In 1997, it was remade with French actress Sophie Marceau and Britain's Sean Bean, as Anna's lover Vronsky.
A British television adaptation, starring Helen McCrory and Kevin McKidd, was shown on Channel 4 in 2000.

[Mr Sloane]

A new British version of Anna Karenina will be released next year, directed by Joe Wright and starring Keira Knightley. The pair of them have done farily well in their last two collaboratons, so it may be worthwhile.

BBC News - Keira Knightley to play Anna Karenina in new film

Keira Knightley to play Anna Karenina in new film

Is Vronsky that young ?

[didi-5]

Jude Law as Karenin? Now that is interesting casting. This could have some potential.

[jaycad]

We're printing set backdrops for what must be this film at work this weekend-I wasn't sure whether they were for a TV or Film production having not read anything about it until this thread.

[CaptainWaggett]

Is Vronsky that young ?

I don't think his age is specified - he's just a dashing young officer. All that really matters is that he's younger than Karenin. I thought Aaron Johnson was fairly terrible in Nowhere Boy so I'll be interested to whether they can make him a more attractive propostion than Jude

[sippog]

After the universal approbation she received for Lara, Anna Karenina was a natural choice of course
What's next for Keira we wonder (with bated breath) - Phaedra? Mother Courage? Cleopatra?

[Windyridge]

A new British version of Anna Karenina will be released next year, directed by Joe Wright and starring Keira Knightley.

[TimR]

The rarely seen version with Nicola Pagett was the only one that worked on any level. Greta Garbo looked right but that was a terrible film otherwise. Jacqueline Bisset did a good job as well. There were two outstanding performances I have seen in the various versions, and they were both by actors playing Karenin: Ralph Richardson and Eric Porter.

The greatest works rarely make high quality films because too much of the original vision is lost. But that doomed love story and the train are irresistible so they just keep making more versions.

[Windyridge]

The rarely seen version with Nicola Pagett was the only one that worked on any level. Greta Garbo looked right but that was a terrible film otherwise. Jacqueline Bisset did a good job as well. There were two outstanding performances I have seen in the various versions, and they were both by actors playing Karenin: Ralph Richardson and Eric Porter.

The greatest works rarely make high quality films because too much of the original vision is lost. But that doomed love story and the train are irresistible so they just keep making more versions.

What about Vivien Leigh? I thought her version was pretty good. Talking about keeping on making more versions of something, how many more times can I sit through "The Deep Blue Sea"?

[TimR]

What about Vivien Leigh? I thought her version was pretty good. Talking about keeping on making more versions of something, how many more times can I sit through "The Deep Blue Sea"?

I would have thought she would be ideal for the role, and she is a favorite of mine - but it was disappointing. I don't think she was too blame. She seemed too subdued - and she had a lot of charm. The actor playing Vronsky did not do a very good job. I have not heard of the other film.

[CaptainWaggett]

I thought Wright's previous two films with Keira were excellent [1] - looking forward to this one (and a Stoppard script won't do any hard). I'm sure some of the original vision will be lost but since only c0000.1 % of the audience will have read the book, that doesn't really matter IMO.

[1] YMMV

[TimR]

.... I'm sure some of the original vision will be lost but since only c0000.1 % of the audience will have read the book, that doesn't really matter IMO.....

I suppose you're correct. A bit depressing but likely accurate.

[Windyridge]

They're finishing up making this at Shepperton at the moment. It's taken long enough. I keep seeing beautifully costumed and coiffed ladies and gents standing outside the stage puffing fags. I wouldn't be surprised if Keira is amongst them, but how can you tell her from countless other pretty girls?