Joe Wright wants to direct Churchill drama Darkest Hour

Joe Wright has some experience bringing scenes set in and around World War II thanks to Atonement (and, to a lesser extent, the opening of Pan). So he seems like a solid choice to turn The Theory Of Everything writer Anthony McCarten's Churchill passion project Darkest Hour into a reality.

Darkest Hour is set in 1940, when Churchill was in his first days as Prime Minister. With Britain under serious threat from Germany and the tide looking likely to turn further, Churchill was under pressure to strike a deal with Hitler that would see Britain effectively become a Third Reich puppet stake. He wrestled with the decision and ultimately decided... well, you know how it turned out. Unless you're somehow reading this from an alternate world where things went badly.

Given Wright's history with Working Title, which produced Atonement, this would seem to b close to a done deal, and indeed the project is moving swiftly towards shooting in the summer with a search on to find the right actor to play Churchill. Wright has also been working on an episode of the new Black Mirror series commissioned by Netflix, which will hopefully be on our screens sooner rather than later.