Adaptation

Even before Joe Wright had begun shooting his feature directorial debut, 2005's Pride & Prejudice – which would ultimately earn him a BAFTA Award, among other honors – producer and Working Title Films co-chairman Tim Bevan realized, "We needed to plan on making this exceptional new director's next movie. So we started to look for material that we might work on with Joe after Pride & Prejudice was finished."

The new project would be another classic British romance from a great book; Ian McEwan's award-winning best-selling novel Atonement was already in development at Working Title with producer Robert Fox and director Richard Eyre. But, as Bevan reports, "Richard took on another movie and had a stage commitment as well. Very honorably, because he absolutely loves Atonement, he said, that if we could find a director that we all agree we want to work with, then he would hand over the helm – and he did."

The director was intent on bringing Atonement from page to screen. He knew that realizing the narrative would be an exciting filmmaking challenge. He comments, "In making a book into a movie, the story reveals itself to you as you make it. You are questioning the structure, you are questioning points of view – and, for Atonement we were questioning one single truth as opposed to multiple truths."

Academy Award-winning screenwriter Christopher Hampton had been adapting the novel. Wright explains, "When I was first sent the script, it had departed quite a lot from the novel. I thought the book was brilliant, and Christopher and I started again from scratch. The script was rewritten' we stuck to the book as faithfully as possible. "

"That was the approach that worked best," confirms the screenwriter. "We returned to the structure of the book. The novel grows in power as the story progresses, and Joe and I wanted to stay true to that."

"It was quite a fluid collaboration," assesses Wright. "By the end, I felt I knew the book and knew the script totally, and understood every moment – or at least tried to. Then, I learned more and more about the material during shooting.

"A book is symbols and words on the pages; it happens in your head. As on Pride & Prejudice, I sought to make a film adaptation of the book that happened in my head as I read it. "

Paul Webster had already rejoined Working Title co-chairs Bevan and Eric Fellner as producer on Atonement, following their producing Pride & Prejudice together. Webster says, "I thought the book was Ian's best, and most cinematic, work. Once our imaginative director started collaborating with Christopher, the script became richer and more complex. Joe brought a vast visual imagination to the film, and Christopher wrote a beautiful script – without what he calls the 'convenient crutch' of a voiceover.

"The themes Atonement addresses are so powerful and common to us all; emerging sexuality, intertwining fates, and that sense of 'if only I'd have done this instead of that, my life would have been entirely different.'"

Bevan recalls discussing the difficulties of bringing Atonement to the screen. He notes, "The film was going to have to be all about the detail, about the times and about precision. It was going to need three different actresses to play the same role, and would use the device of multiple perspectives of the same event. It was going to be a very complicated piece."

McEwan, who has witnessed his works being adapted for the screen on previous occasions, also knew the task would not be simple with Atonement. As he says, "It's a kind of demolition job. You've got to boil down 130,000 words to a screenplay containing 20,000 words. In this particular case there are greater difficulties for the screenwriter because this is a very interior novel. It lives inside the consciousness of several characters. I think Christopher Hampton has steered a wise and clever course through the book."

Hampton offers, "The best and most atmospheric of novelists are often the hardest to adapt. Yet, the adaptations that I've done that have given me the most satisfaction are from works – like Les Liaisons Dangereuses – that are masterpieces. I think Atonement is one of the best novels of the last 20 years, so to preserve its qualities was a great responsibility."

Michiko Kakutani wrote in The New York Times [on June 1, 2007] that, in Atonement, the author "beautifully [explores] the precariousness of daily life and the difficulty of achieving – and holding onto – ordinary happiness."

Wright muses, "Atonement, though set in the past, has contemporary relevance; it is about everyday experiences, relationships, emotions, choices, and decisions. As on Pride & Prejudice, I sought to interpret a period story in such a way that the modern-day audience is able to see beyond the time and setting of a story – and into the story itself.

"What I have learned from directing period pieces is that they free your imagination. If you utilize the specifics of a period very precisely in tandem with emotional truths, it all becomes relevant to a modern audience. In terms of the themes that Atonement deals with, it taught me a lot."

Hampton adds, "The more accurate you are with presenting a period, the more striking the modern aspects of the story become. Audiences watching Atonement will see a completely different world than the one they know – and people in it relating to each other in wholly recognizable ways."

Bevan concludes, "There is a fascinating emotional journey at the heart of Atonement. We all have to live through the circumstances of what we do at any point in our life, and this story is a very acute rendition of that."

By the spring of 2006, the screenplay adaptation was at the 25,000 words it needed to be for a viable movie to be made.

Casting

As on Pride & Prejudice, Joe Wright made sure to cast actors who were of ages comparable to the characters they would be playing in Atonement. As before, he and the producers were set on Keira Knightley as their leading lady.

Wright clarifies, "I felt that Keira, who is such an intuitive actress, was ready to play Cecilia because the truth is that the part is a character role rather than that of the pretty leading lady. It's a very complex role; Cecilia is not a particularly likable person to start with, but she is redeemed by her love of Robbie and by his of her."

Knightley says, "I had a great experience on Pride & Prejudice; Joe is a sensational director. He makes sure that every actor sees the story from their character's point of view. After reading Christopher Hampton's beautiful script, I knew I wanted to play Cecilia."

Paul Webster notes, "The strong working relationship that Joe and Keira developed over the course of filming Pride & Prejudice meant they had a mutual understanding and respect that would enable them to effectively approach Cecilia together.

Wright enthuses, "Keira was not afraid of playing Cecilia as cold and difficult, and awkward in her own skin. She was brave in taking this role, since many actors are terrified of being disliked as the characters they play on-screen. The resulting performance is, I believe, her boldest and strongest to date."

For Knightley, there was considerable appeal in playing a character so different than any she has played in her career thus far. She explains, "The reason I liked this character is because she is a woman, of the kind Bette Davis might have played. She knows who she is, yet she doesn't know which direction to go in, so she's quite conflicted. She doesn't realize that actually she fancies Robbie; she's grown up with him, and at first won't admit that there's anything between them beyond a kind of brother-and-sister relationship. But, there is, and when we meet them they're on the brink."

The male lead role of Robbie Turner, the son of the Tallis family housekeeper with a Cambridge education courtesy of the Tallis family, called for an actor who, notes Wright, "had the acting ability to take the audience with him on his personal and physical journey."

McAvoy saw the story as "epic, romantic, and really about what it is to be a human being. It affected – and still affects – me hugely, and I hope it will do the same to audiences. Atonement also explores the truth of how we are at our best when we are being attacked, and Robbie Turner is forced to fight on two fronts."

Wright adds, "I'd first seen James in a play about seven years ago, and I could tell how good he was. I'd offered him parts twice before, and this third time was the charm. James has working-class roots, and that was very important; Robbie's story is that of a working-class boy whose life is often at the mercy of the snobbery of an upper class family. James also has a deep soul, and isn't afraid to show it. The character is described by Ian McEwan as having 'eyes of optimism,' and James has those. When he smiles, you smile; when he cries, you cry."

McEwan adds, "Later in the story, it is written that 'there is a stamp of experience in the corners of his eyes.' Through James' performance, you feel the pathos."

Even so, as McAvoy notes, "Joe would tell me, 'Don't beg them to cry,' meaning, the audience. Robbie was one of the most difficult characters I've ever played, because he's very straight-ahead. In the 1935 scenes, the family doesn't see him as one of them, yet he doesn't have a chip on his shoulder. Joe was very keen not to be manipulative with the audience, so he emphasized underplaying. So, later in the story, when Robbie explodes, you really feel it.

"As a director, Joe knows how to choreograph his scenes, understands the story he's telling, respects his crew, and loves actors; he made me a better actor on Atonement."

Knightley reveals, "Joe would direct us to deliver our lines swiftly; he wanted the dialogue scenes to play as they did in classic British movies. He likened it to rain pattering down, or bullets firing. Doing that informed our performances and showed us who our characters were; it was exciting to play, because that particular style of speaking is now lost. It's like doing an accent, yet it made everything easier."

Wright clarifies, "The actors in 1930s and 1940s movies had a naturalism to their performances. I wanted to recapture that with this cast; I showed them Rebecca, Brief Encounter – which James and Keira particularly adore – and In Which We Serve, to name a few."

McAvoy laughs, "Keira just flew with that style of acting. For the rest of us, it took a little bit longer!

"Joe's basic instructions to me were very simple; 'Stop acting and stop trying. Less is more.' He taught me to do away with acting that you think you need to do."

McEwan says, "Keira and James are superb together. I particularly liked the scene in the library. This is a wonderful release of tension for Cecilia – a brittle upper-class young woman, divorced from her own feelings. In the library, she confronts them in a flood of strong emotion and erotic charge."

Bevan adds, "James is poised to become a movie star; he gives a fantastic performance in Atonement."

Casting not one but three Briony Tallises was a challenge the filmmakers happily met, albeit not in order of their on-screen appearances. While Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave was everyone's ideal to play the older Briony, and committed to the role after one meeting with Wright, the younger incarnations proved tougher to cast.

After many auditions and much searching for an actress to play Briony at age 13, casting director Jina Jay (who also cast Pride & Prejudice) came across Saoirse (pronounced "sear-sha") Ronan. The Irish actress, at the time 12 years old, has, according to Wright, "a keen sensibility which belies her years, making her perfect for the role of the young writer."

The young actress saw her character as "a girl with a very creative imagination; she can go off by herself and write stories and plays. She makes herself believe things, and after a while, she decides to go with her imagination and to believe herself instead of anyone else.

"I felt so lucky to have gotten this fantastic part. Working with Joe – who explains everything so well and so clearly – and everyone was just really special. Hopefully I'll be like Keira when I'm her age, making intelligent choices as an actress."

On the set, Wright only grew more and more impressed with Ronan. He says, "So much rests on her shoulders in that first section. Without a brilliant Briony at age 13, we would have been in trouble…A lot of actors draw on their own emotional experience; in a way they substitute their characters' emotion for their own emotion, and vice versa, and there's no right or wrong way of doing that.

"But Saoirse doesn't. She purely imagined what it would be like to be Briony Tallis, who is nothing like her. Saoirse has such empathy that she can feel and express the emotions of another human being. That's an incredible talent to have; every day she would surprise me, and fill all of us with awe."

McEwan marvels, "What a remarkable young actress Saoirse is. She gives us thought processes right on-screen, even before she speaks, and conveys so much with her eyes."

Speaking of which, adds Wright, "I consciously chose three actresses with strong eyes; Briony is the eyes of the film, which is conveyed when each of the three Brionys looks straight at the camera lens."

Hampton remarks, "With these three actresses, there is no doubt that you are seeing Briony Tallis throughout the course of her life. The hospital sequences are particular favorites of mine; Romola Garai has a quality of gravity that enhances the second section of the film."

Garai, who plays Briony at age 18, was the last of this trio to be cast. Accordingly, she was obliged to adapt her performance's physicality to fit into the Briony appearance that had already been decided upon for Ronan and Redgrave. Garai rose to the challenge, spending time with Ronan and watching footage of her to approximate the way the younger actress moved. All three actresses worked with a voice coach to keep the character's timbre in a similar range throughout the story.

Having read the book prior, Garai saw Briony as "an amazing character, and so precisely created. I usually play more outgoing characters, but after what happens in the first part of the story, Briony has become highly insular and not able to express herself.

"Joe does not have that problem; he's so honest with actors in his directions. Since I have to follow Saoirse's performance in the story, it was good to have someone who sees all for Briony and knows the character best; he was able to say, 'This is what she's thinking' or 'This is how she feels right now.' With such a clear vision of what he wants the film to be, his was a working style that I really responded to."

Tim Bevan observes, "Romola is one of a very exciting group of new-generation British actors right now. Joe has four of them in Atonement; James, Keira, Romola, and Benedict Cumberbatch."

Cumberbatch is reunited with McAvoy after previously starring together in Starter for Ten; he was cast in Atonement as Paul Marshall, the chocolate company heir whose stay with the Tallises proves eventful in the first portion of the film.

In addition to Knightley, Wright was able to reconvene two more Pride & Prejudice actors; Brenda Blethyn and Peter Wight signed on for small but pivotal roles.

"They've cast Atonement superbly, and the precision of the performances shows how good a director Joe is," sums up McEwan.

Preparation and Production

Even as Pride & Prejudice was still playing around the world, Joe Wright and the trio of producers were asking members of the team to ready for the new movie together. Executive producers Debra Hayward and Liza Chasin, and co-producer Jane Frazer, would again be on board.

More valued key collaborators encored; production designer Sarah Greenwood, costume designer Jacqueline Durran, composer Dario Marianelli – all of whom had earned Academy Award nominations for their work on Pride & Prejudice – and editor Paul Tothill. Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey and hair and make-up designer Ivana Primorac, who had themselves worked together on The Hours, newly rounded out Wright's team.

Greenwood affirms, "Joe likes to run a film like a repertory company, using the same team. It's a very creative way of working, and you can hit the ground running because there's a shorthand."

Paul Webster adds, "There's also a trust and a strength that are gained from a director having a team back together. The ideas and information flow."

Wright meticulously prepared for production, actively engaging with every department early on to communicate his vision, in order that the "book that happened in his head" could be dramatized on-screen and that once filming began, everyone was on the same page of that book.

"He's the most prepared director I've ever worked with," states Webster. "Once he has the film in his head, he designs it shot by shot and scene by scene with the cinematographer. He plots out every location. Then, he shares all this information with everyone, which is – in my experience – unique for a director.

"Before shooting begins, we are given a plan of the film, with everything down on paper; shot diagrams, storyboards, pictures. On those occasions when it changes during production, everyone gets the updates. What's especially exciting is that the camera becomes the writer."

"Joe has a strong vision," offers Durran. "He will be quite specific about the look he wants, but he will also be open to your suggestions."

The director conducted a three-week rehearsal period with the cast, ensuring that by the time the cameras rolled all the actors were comfortable with their characters and the environment(s) they inhabited. This afforded several members of the cast the chance to confer with fellow actors who were in different periods of the story.

Vanessa Redgrave says, "Saoirse Ronan and Romola Garai and I did some improvisations on body language, among other things, for Briony. Joe – who is brilliant with actors – was able to pick and choose what he wanted focused on during the filming."

Wright adds, "We had meals together and talked to each other so that everyone would be able to express their emotions, including when we began filming. This way, there was no tension blocking communication."

James McAvoy reveals, "We also learned dances like the foxtrot. Now, there's not much dancing in the film, but spending an hour every day for three weeks doing this made the cast bond."

Research was actively encouraged; Keira Knightley's extensive reading about WWII in the U.K. so fascinated her that she continued exploring those years even after production had wrapped. Actors met with real-life WWII nurses and war veterans, including soldiers who had been at the Battle of Dunkirk.

The three parts of the film were envisioned with very different identities and looks which Wright wanted to subtly convey to the audience through the camera work and different color palettes. This necessitated complete correlation between the director and his heads of departments – McGarvey, Greenwood, Durran, and Primorac in particular. Wright would communicate what he needed and wanted to the department heads, and the departments in turn would unify and enhance each other's work with a shared sensibility that would translate effectively on the set and to the final film.

The department heads worked with a historian and then went on to research and prepare for each part / period; they looked at paintings, photographs, and films, and searched archives for inspiration to fit the story. This was especially important with regard to the WWII era being re-created.