Lionsgate has released a first look at the upcoming Red Joan, a new feature based on Jennie Rooney’s best-selling novel of the same name. The film is inspired by the remarkable true story of a woman accused of being the KGB’s longest-serving British spy.
Now in post-production, Red Joan filmed on location across England and stars Judi Dench (Skyfall, Shakespeare in Love) and Sophie Cookson (Kingsman: The Secret Service, Gypsy) as the eponymous central character. We have our first look at the two below.
Stephen Campbell Moore (The Child in Time, Goodbye Christopher Robin), Tom Hughes (Victoria, London Town), Ben Miles (The Crown, Woman in Gold), and Tereza Srbova (Eastern Promises, Inkheart) join Dench and Cookson in this suspenseful drama directed by Trevor Nunn.
2000: Joan Stanley (Dench) is living in contented retirement in suburbia at the turn of the millennium. Her tranquil life is suddenly disrupted when she’s arrested by MI5 and accused of providing intelligence to Communist Russia.
1938: Joan (Cookson) is a Cambridge physics student who falls for young communist Leo Galich (Hughes) and through him, begins to see the world in a new light.
Working at a top-secret nuclear research facility during WWII, Joan comes to the realisation that the world is on the brink of mutually assured destruction. Confronted with an impossible question – what price would you pay for peace? – Joan has to choose between betraying her country and loved ones or saving them.
Red Joan is a Trademark Films production in association with Cambridge Picture Company, and is directed by Trevor Nunn, produced by David Parfitt and co-produced by Ivan Mactaggart and Alice Dawson. Lindsay Shapero penned the script from Jennie Rooney’s best-selling novel of the same name. The film is backed by Quickfire, Cofiloisirs and Twickenham Studios. Embankment Films is handling worldwide sales and Lionsgate will release the film in the UK.
