Atonement: The Movie

ATONEMENT, a Universal Pictures presentation in association with Studio Canal and Relativity Media, a Working Title production, is directed by Joe Wright and stars James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Romola Garai, Saoirse Ronan and Vanessa Redgrave. The screenplay is by Christopher Hampton based on the best selling novel by Ian McEwan. The producers are Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Paul Webster, with Richard Eyre, Robert Fox, Ian McEwan, Debra Hayward and Liza Chasin executive producing. The film also stars Brenda Blethyn, Juno Temple, Benedict Cumberbatch, Patrick Kennedy, Harriet Walter, Peter Wight, Daniel Mays, Nonso Anozie, Gina McKee, Jeremie Renier and Michelle Duncan.

Joe Wright has gathered together many of his collaborators from Pride & Prejudice. As well as Keira Knightley and Brenda Blethyn, he has brought back on board production designer Sarah Greenwood, costume designer Jacqueline Durran, editor Paul Tothill and composer Dario Marianelli. Greenwood, Durran and Marianelli all received Academy Award nominations for their contribution to Pride & Prejudice. Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey and make-up and hair designer Ivana Primorac complete Wright’s technical team.

The film opens in England in 1935, on the hottest day of the year. In the looming shadow of World War II Briony Tallis and her family live a life of wealth and privilege in their enormous Victorian Gothic mansion. As the family gathers for the weekend the combination of the oppressive heat and long suppressed emotions coming to the surface create an ominous sense of threat and danger. Briony, a fledgling writer, is a girl with a vivid imagination. Through a series of catastrophic misunderstandings she accuses Robbie Turner, the housekeeper’s son and lover of her sister Cecilia, of a crime he did not commit. This accusation destroys Robbie and Cecilia’s new found love and dramatically alters the course of all their lives.

Filming took place on location in Shropshire, London, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Grimsby and Redcar in the UK.

ATONEMENT is distributed by Universal Pictures International in all territories outside North America where it will be released by Focus Features.

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