Gary Oldman in talks to play Winston Churchill in Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Deadline is reporting that the one and only Gary Oldman is in talks to star as Winston Churchill in the World War II drama DARKEST HOUR. Joe Wright (PAN, HANNA) will direct the Working Title production from a script by THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING scribe Anthony McCarten, who is also producing with Lisa Bruce and Working Title co-chiefs Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, and filming is scheduled to begin this July.

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 ever-busy Oldman has several movies in various stages of production, including Ariel Vromen's CRIMINAL (which is out today), Donovan Marsh's HUNTER KILLER and Patrick Hughes' THE HITMAN'S BODYGUARD.