Currently in production, Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina, starring Keira Knightley, Jude Law and Aaron Johnson, is set to be distributed by the Joe Wright-friendly Focus Features during the second half of 2012. Knightley stars as the titular Anna, Law as the husband she doesn’t love and young Johnson as Vronsky, the man she does [Deadline].
Kelly Macdonald, Matthew Macfadyen, Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Emily Watson, Olivia Williams and Ruth Wilson also star in the picture, the umpteenth big-screen adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s novel, originally published in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger, according to Wikipedia.
The most recent adaptation starred long-lost Bond girl Sophie Marceau as Anna and Sean Bean as Vronsky, was released in 1997 and very, very poorly received.
This will be the third time Wright and Knightley have worked together (Pride and Prejudice, Atonement), and also the third time the pair has worked together on a literary adaptation set in the past. By now, in my mind, this is where Miss Knightley lives. Watching Last Night takes some getting used to.
Like so many of the classic Russian literature ripe with adaptation possibilities, Anna Karenina is long, cerebral and dense. In short, it’s hard to adapt. That said, with one of the best Jane Eyre adaptations coming out earlier this year and strong buzz in front of Andrea Arnold’s forthcoming take on Wuthering Heights, I’d say there’s reason to hope for these Russian scholars yet.
Have you read Anna Karenina? Have you seen the 1997 version?