Empire Magazine’s latest issue has a first look at Anna Karenina, the film adaptation of the classic Leo Tolstoy epic that reunites Oscar nominated Pride and Prejudice star Keira Knightley and director Joe Wright, fresh off the well-received 2011 thriller Hanna.

Our first look at Knightley as Karenina is above. Knightly usually gives her best performances for Wright (he directed her in Atonement too) and as she is naturally photogenic and has played upper to upper middle class women rather well, she is a great fit for one of the novel’s over-privileged protagonists.

Below, our first look at Aaron Johnson as Count Vronsky;

 

Jude Law as Alexei Karenin;

And finally another image of Knightley;

 

Empire carry an extended profile on Wright and mention that he has challenged himself to make Anna Karenina almost entirely on a single stage that is an “elastic universe”, an experiment that would saw toy trains and dollhouses standing in for exterior locations.

Though Wright has decided to go for a BBC-like friendly version in terms of the Russian accents as there won’t be any. Everyone is talking English in their native tongues.

Anna Karenina is due September 7th in the UK with a release coming in the U.S. soon after, possibly at the Venice or Toronto film festival premiere in the offing.

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