Leo Tolstoy’s War And Peace is getting another small screen adaptation from the BBC. While it was first announced over a year ago, the BBC has finally set the series’ main cast.
Paul Dano, who starred in There Will Be Blood and last year’s 12 Years A Slave, will play Pierre Bezukhov. Cinderella’s Lily James will play Natasha Rostova. The main trio will be filled out by Belle’s James Norton, who will play Prince Andrei Bolkonsky.
Other members of the cast include Stephen Rea, Ade Edmondson, Greta Scacchi, Jack Lowden, Tom Burke and Aisling Loftus.
The series is being directed by Tom Harper (The Scouting Book for Boys, Woman in Black: Angel of Death) and will be produced by the BBC with The Weinstein Company.
“I'm thrilled to be entrusted with Andrei in this exciting adaptation. It's a privilege to bring to life one of Tolstoy's wonderfully rich and conflicted characters,” Norton said in a statement. “And to get to work alongside talents such as Tom Harper, Andrew Davies, Lily James and Paul Dano is very exciting – I can't wait to get started.”
“The impressive array of talent assembled for this drama production is testament to the ambition and scale of this iconic story that we will bring to life for a new generation,” Ben Stephenson, Controller BBC Drama Commissioning, added.
The series was announced back in February 2013 as a six-part series written by Andrew Davies.
War And Peace was previously adapted by the BBC in 1972 with a 20-part version. A Hollywood film in 1956 starred Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda, while the Soviet Union made an epic, seven-hour movie in 1967 and 1968.
image of Paul Dano courtesy of Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto.com