Perhaps in an attempt to play every iconic female in classic literature (she’s already been Lara from Doctor Zhivago, Elizabeth Bennet, and Tinker Bell, not to mention Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and Guinevere), Keira Knightley has signed on to play the titular character in Anna Karenina.
The film will be directed by Joe Wright, who also directed Knightley in Atonement and Pride and Prejudice.
Jude Law will play her husband Aleksei Karenin, and Aaron Johnson will play Count Vronsky.
Kelly Macdonald, Matthew Macfadyen, Emily Watson, and Ruth Wilson are also signed on for the film.
The book is a hard one to film (see: similar discussion of Wuthering Heights) because Anna’s decisions and choices seem so...wrong.
Greta Garbo tackled the part back in 1935, and there have been other adaptations since then, but not one that has truly captured the essence of the book.
Do you like seeing Knightley in period costume? Will you go to see this film with (it’s not a spoiler, everyone knows!) an unhappy ending?
