With David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike already in place to lead (and in Oyelowo’s case, produce) marriage drama A United Kingdom, Amma Asante has been building up the ensemble around them. Tom Felton, Jack Davenport, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Laura Carmichael and Arnold Oceng are all now aboard.
Guy Hibbert wrote the script for the film, which finds Oyelowo as Seretse Khama, heir to the African throne of Botswana, who created a sensation in 1948 by engaging in a whirlwind romance in London with a woman named Ruth Williams (Pike). Romancing a white English office worker was considered controversial enough, but then he married her. The interracial union was opposed by both their families, as well as the British government, the tribal elders of Botswana and the apartheid government of South Africa.
Variety’s report offers no details on what the new recruits will be doing in the film, though we do now know that Asante is already rolling the cameras in Botswana. Felton, who also appeared in Asante’s Belle, has also worked on Roman mystery Risen and action film Stratton. He’ll also be seen in revenge thriller Message From The King. Davenport has The Tank, Americana and Gernika awaiting release dates, while Lyndhurst has largely been busy on TV’s New Tricks. Carmichael is wrapping up her run on Downton Abbey (with the show itself finishing this year) and will be seen in a new comedy called Burn Burn Burn.