'One Day' Starring Hathaway & Sturgess, Based on Bestselling Novel Begins Production

Production has begun on One Day, the feature film version of the internationally praised novel of the same name by David Nicholls, which this month enters The New York Times bestseller list. Academy Award nominee Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess star in the movie. One Day is a co-production in the unique partnership of Random House Inc.'s Random House Films division and Focus Features. The U.K.'s Film4 is co-financing.

Mr. Nicholls has adapted his book into the screenplay for One Day, which Focus will release theatrically in the third quarter of 2011. Focus holds worldwide rights - excluding U.K. free-TV, to be held by Film4 - to the movie version. Filming is taking place on location in the U.K., as well as in Scotland and France.

Ms. Hathaway and Mr. Sturgess are joined by a supporting cast that includes Romola Garai (of Focus' Atonement), Jamie Sives (Get Him to the Greek), Rafe Spall (Hot Fuzz), Ken Stott (Charlie Wilson's War), and Jodie Whittaker (Film4's Venus).

One Day is being directed by Lone Scherfig, who most recently helmed the Best Picture Academy Award nominee An Education. Nina Jacobson (the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies) is producing One Day, and Tessa Ross, controller, Film4 & Channel 4 drama, is executive-producing. Jane Frazer (Focus' Pride & Prejudice) is co-producer.

Focus senior vice president, European production Teresa Moneo is supervising One Day with Focus director of production Matthew Plouffe for Focus president of production John Lyons. The film is also be supervised by Claudia Herr, executive story editor, for Random House Films president Peter Gethers.

The One Day crew includes cinematographer Benoît Delhomme (The Proposition), costume designer Odile Dicks-Mireaux and film editor Barney Pilling (both of An Education), hair and make-up designer Ivana Primorac (Focus' upcoming Hanna), and production designer Mark Tildesley (Focus' Pirate Radio).

The story charts an extraordinary relationship. Emma (played by Ms. Hathaway) and Dexter (Mr. Sturgess) meet on the night of their college graduation - July 15th, 1988. She is a working-class girl of principle and ambition who dreams of making the world a better place. He is a wealthy charmer who dreams that the world will be his playground. For the next two decades, every July 15th reveals to us how "Em" and "Dex" are faring, as their friendship ebbs and flows with the passing of the years. Through laughter and romance, heartbreak and exhilaration, they experience the grandeur of life. Somewhere along their journey, these two people realize that what they are searching and hoping for has been there for them all along.

The book was #1 on both the hardcover and paperback bestseller charts in the U.K. It was published in the U.S. in trade paperback on June 15th by Vintage Books, a paperback imprint of Random House, Inc.'s Knopf Doubleday Group. It rises to #4 on this Sunday's (July 18th) New York Times Trade Paperback Fiction Bestseller list, after debuting on July 11th at #7.

In the unique multi-year filmmaking partnership between Random House Films and Focus, the companies develop movies together and co-finance and co-produce a substantial slate of feature films for theatrical release, all based on books published by Random House imprints in North America and internationally. Random House Films and Focus jointly acquire film rights for the books and partner together on script development, director selection, all phases of production, and marketing and publicity. Films co-produced by Focus with Random House Films are jointly owned, with Focus holding worldwide distribution and sales rights.

Film4, headed by Tessa Ross, is Channel 4 Television's feature film division. The Company develops and co-finances film productions and is known for working with the most innovative talent in the U.K., whether new or established. Film4 developed and co-financed Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, which won 8 Academy Awards last year. Film4 partnered with Focus on Martin McDonagh's In Bruges, for which star Colin Farrell won a Golden Globe Award. It also backed Steve McQueen's Hunger, winner of the 2008 Cannes International Film Festival's Camera d'Or; Mike Leigh's Oscar-nominated Happy-Go-Lucky, for which star Sally Hawkins won a Golden Globe Award; and Chris Morris' Four Lions, which has to date grossed £4.5m at the U.K. boxoffice.

Film4's Current Productions include Danny Boyle's 127 Hours, starring James Franco; Mark Romanek's Never Let Me Go, starring Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan; Richard Ayoade's directorial debut Submarine; Joe Cornish's directorial debut Attack the Block; Peter Mullan's Neds; Pawel Pawlikowski's Woman in the Fifth; with Focus Features International, Mike Leigh's Another Year; and with Focus Features, Kevin Macdonald's Roman epic adventure The Eagle (formerly known as The Eagle of the Ninth), starring Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell, Donald Sutherland and Mark Strong.

Focus Features and Focus Features International (www.focusfeatures.com) comprise a singular global company. This worldwide studio makes original and daring films that challenge the mainstream to embrace and enjoy voices and visions from around the world that deliver global commercial success. The company operates as Focus Features in North America, and as Focus Features International (FFI) in the rest of the world.

In addition to One Day and The Eagle, current and upcoming Focus Features releases include Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right, starring Annette Bening, JuliAnne Moore, and Mark Ruffalo; Anton Corbijn's suspense thriller The American, starring George Clooney; writer/directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's It's Kind of a Funny Story; Academy Award-winning writer/director Sofia Coppola's Somewhere; Cary Fukunaga's romantic drama Jane Eyre, starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender; and Joe Wright's adventure thriller Hanna, starring Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, and Eric Bana.

Focus Features and Focus Features International are part of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. Formed in May 2004 through the combining of NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment, NBC Universal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, and world-renowned theme parks. NBC Universal is 80% owned by General Electric and 20% owned by Vivendi.

Random House, Inc. (www.randomhouse.com), the U.S. division of Random House, the world's largest trade book publisher, is home to many of the world's foremost and most popular authors of adult and children's books. Random House has more than 120 publishing imprints in 16 countries, which publish books in hardcover, trade and mass market paperback, audio, electronic, digital, and other emerging formats. More than 50 Random House authors have been awarded Nobel Prizes and the company's books have won numerous Pulitzer Prizes, National Book Awards, Newbery honors, and other major literary recognitions.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

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