07/09/2005

Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Dame Judi Dench, Rosamund Pike, Donald Sutherland and Brenda Blethyn, the key cast members of the new adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride And Prejudice will be attending the film’s regional premiere today in Manchester, following London’s lavish premiere last Monday at the Odeon Leicester Square.

In this new Pride & Prejudice screen version directed by Joe Wright and produced by the UK leading mainstream production company Working Title, 20-year-old UK star actress Keira Knightley plays the film’s heroine Elizabeth Bennet. Opposite her as the arrogant Mr Darcy is 31-year-old Scottish actor Matthew Macfadyen, a familiar face for UK TV viewers, whose first feature film was the New-Zealand/UK co-production In My Father’s Den.
Working Title being a subsidiary of Universal, UIP will handle the UK release of Pride & Prejudice on September 16 and the film will also screen as a Gala Presentation at the 30th Toronto International Film Festival.

The next major Working Title production to hit UK screens on October 21rst is the family film Nanny Mcphee, based on the Nurse Matilda novels by Christiana Brand. The screen adaptation will be the second one for actress Emma Thompson since her Academy Award winning script of Sense & Sensibility in 1995. Emma Thompson will also star in Nanny Mcphee alongside Colin Firth, Angela Lansbury and Imelda Staunton. The film is directed by Kirk Jones (Waking Ned).

Currently shooting in South Africa for Working Title is the political thriller Hot Stuff starring Tim Robbins and Derek Luke. The film based on the true story of Patrick Chamusso, tells the story of an ordinary man forced to resort to terror. Also producing with Working Title’s Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan are Anthony Minghella and Robyn Slovo (Morvern Callar [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), with Sydney Pollack acting as executive producer with Debra Hayward and Liza Chasin.