“We wanted a younger man to play him,” said McCarten. However, Oldman was years younger than his character, and refused to gain weight for the role. Wright said he would only do the movie if Gary Oldman (Oscar-nominated for “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”) portrayed the PM. It had to do justice to the world war, and be a war movie where you never show the war.” “Darkest Hour” Jack English “We needed someone who could get inside those words and create visual music with it,” said McCarten. That meant waiting three years for Working Title’s go-to virtuoso Joe Wright, who also directed the long-take scan of the beach at Dunkirk in “Atonement.” McCarten said the script flowed easily, and he set it up with his old producing partner Lisa Bruce at Working Title, which also produced “The Theory of Everything.” However, this wasn’t the only Churchill movie out there and they wanted a team who could elevate it. As the myth fell away, the film was emerging.” “I like finding something underneath the public myth that animates them and gives them dimensionality that we didn’t know existed. “It was a bit daunting, writing dialogue for one of the great wordsmiths in the world,” he said. That’s when the PM wrote and delivered three of the greatest speeches of all time, and single-mindedly pushed his country to fight the German menace, even as the British were still recovering from The Great War. He focused on Churchill during his first months as Prime Minister of England - just as France and Belgium fell to the Nazis, when England’s army was stranded and surrounded by German forces on the beach at Dunkirk. When it came to setting high stakes for his protagonist, McCarten had it easy. Gwyneth Paltrow Says Oscar Win Led to ‘Identity Crisis’: British Press Were ‘Horrible to Me’ Joe Wright H. But as a World War II talky companion piece to silent action epic “Dunkirk,” it’s also a well-mounted mainstream contender for a long list of nominations, including a Best-Picture nod. They haven’t changed since the Greeks picked up a pen.”Ī hit at the fall festivals ( Metascore: 72), “ Darkest Hour” (Focus Features, November 22) is poised to deliver Gary Oldman a Best Actor Oscar as Winston Churchill. “The issues that assail us are perennial. But really, when have we not needed leadership? “We’re living in extraordinary times, all the time,” McCarten said. That was before Brexit, before Trump, so it seems incredibly prescient. Well, there was one that was really intimidating, McCarten said, about Winston Churchill.

McCarten threw out a few ideas - no response.

Four years ago, Oscar-nominated “The Theory of Everything” screenwriter Anthony McCarten sat down for a pint with an old chum in a country pub.

The darkest flower by kristin wright