WHO’S IN IT?
Brian Cox (The Escapist), Miranda Richardson (Made in Daganham), John Slattery (Spotlight), James Purefoy (High-Rise), Julian Wadham (War Horse), Danny Webb (Valkyrie), Richard Durden (The Awakening), Ella Purnell (Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children)
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Jonathan Teplitzky (The Railway Man), director; Alex von Tunzelmann (film debut), writer; Claudia Bluemhuber (Unlocked), Nick Taussig (Shank), Piers Tempest (Killing Bono) and Paul Van Carter (My Name Is Lenny), producers; Lorne Balfe (War on Everyone), composer; David Higgs (RocknRolla), cinematographer; Chris Gill (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), editor
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
It’s June 1944, and the Allied forces are beginning to assemble in England before a giant mission to reclaim Nazi-occupied Europe. However, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Cox) – a shell of his earlier days in office when he proudly resisted Hitler’s Blitzkrieg, but is now rocked by exhaustion and depression – is anxious about giving the go-ahead to the D-Day landings, as failure would make him look weaker than ever, and the last thing he needs is a mass slaughter to rival his failed Gallipoli defence in 1915. Through the support of his wife Clementine (Richardson), Churchill attempts to stand up to himself as well as to the demands of US General Dwight D. Eisenhower (Slattery) in order to allow the tide-changing mission to go ahead…
IN ONE SENTENCE, WHY SHOULD YOU BE EXCITED?
Brian Cox shines as one of the country’s most influential figures of the 20th century, and it certainly helps that this Churchill biopic gets released way before Joe Wright and Gary Oldman’s awards-contender version, not due out until much later in the year.
