If everything comes together as planned, Joe Wright will get his adaptation of “Anna Karenina” this fall and he’s amassing one helluva cast. He’s already got longtime collaborator Keira Knightley on board, and Aaron Johnson and Jude Law are also vying for roles. Wright tends to be fiercely loyal to the actors he works and he may adding a rising talent to his film.
In an interview with 24 Frames the site notes somewhat cryptically that Saoirse Ronan — star of Wright’s upcoming “Hanna” — may be joining the cast, but that the director declined to confirm. Thompson on Hollywood also caught up with Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner (the producers of the project) and she listed Ronan as a possibility as well.
Wright tends not to give up any of his casting until it’s locked in and Ronan of late has been very careful about how she answers any potential casting news. Constantly pestered with questions about if she’ll be re-teaming with Peter Jackson and appearing in “The Hobbit,” she lately told E! Online, “That’s not confirmed,” adding, “I would love to do it. It would be great to go there, and if they ask me I would say yes.” Seems like a very roundabout way of answering a question — either she’s in it or not but her answer seems to indicate that the possibility is there. And we’d wager it’s probably the reason she isn’t locked for “Anna Karenina” just yet. It would likely depend on what her schedule is like for “The Hobbit” (how long it will be and when it will take place over the film’s extensive shoot which are all likely sticking points to be ironed out right now).
Anyway, no word yet on what her role would be if she does join the tragic Moscow-set love story about the titular married Russian aristocrat who falls for an army officer. Of course, Knightley will take on the lead role, and as 24 Frames reveals, Law will play her husband Karenin and Johnson will be her lover Vronsky. The film has a script written by Tom Stoppard and Wright promises it will be bigger than any version that has come before.
“The Garbo version focused very much on Anna’s story,” Wright said. “And what Tom has written is a kind of multi-stranded portrait of a community.”
So leave it as a “what if/might happen” scenario, but Ronan would be an excellent addition. “Anna Karenina” will hopefully begin later this year; no release dates have been set.