McEwan’s Atonement to open Venice Film Festival

Film adaptation of Atonement to premiere at the 64th Venice Film Festival

24 July 2007

The film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s bestselling novel, Atonement, is to launch next month at the Venice Film Festival. The film, based on the novel shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2001, will star James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Romola Garai, Saoirse Ronan and Vanessa Redgrave.

Adapted for the screen by Christopher Hampton, Atonement tells the story of 13 year old Briony Tallis, who changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister’s lover of a crime he did not commit.

The film is directed by Joe Wright (of Pride & Prejudice fame) and produced by co-chairmen of Working Title Films Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, and Paul Webster. Ian McEwan also acted as Executive Producer.

Actors James McAvoy and Keira Knightly are reportedly huge fans of the novel. In an interview for Empire, McAvoy describes the novel as ‘the finest thing he has ever read’ and Knightly admitting that she ‘cried for the last five pages.’

Other McEwan novels adapted for film include The Comfort of Strangers, The Cement Garden, The Innocent and Enduring Love.

Atonement will premiere on the evening of 29th August in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema at the Venice Film Festival.

To see a trailer of Atonement please visit www.atonementthemovie.co.uk