Anna, a forthcoming political thriller, has added Emma D’Arcy, Harry Lawtey, and Ellie Bamber to its cast. The Movie is based on the life of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, an outspoken opponent of Vladimir Putin’s rule. According to Deadline, D’Arcy will play Anna’s daughter Vera, while Lawtey will portray Anna’s son Ilya. Bamber will play Elena, one of her mentees, in the film. Their roles complement those of Maxine Peake, who plays the title character Anna, Jason Isaacs, who plays her husband Sacha, and Ciarán Hinds, who plays her editor Dmitry Muratov.
James Strong will helm the movie. Novaya Gazeta reporter Anna Politkovskaya became a household name after she exposed human rights crimes committed on both sides of the Second Chechen War. She received death threats, was harassed by security forces and was poisoned before her murder in 2006; five men were convicted of her murder in 2014, but the people who hired them to kill her have not been held accountable. Letter to Anna by Eric Bergkraut and A Bitter Taste of Freedom by Marina Goldovskaya are only two of the documentaries based on her life. Previously to their part as an older Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen in the smash blockbuster Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, English actress D’Arcy featured in a variety of British films, such as the paranormal comedy series Truth Seekers and the 2020 Keira Knightley picture Misbehavior.
Lawtey, who is also British, is starring in HBO’s Industry as the working-class ambitious banker Robert Spearing and will soon be seen in the Christian Bale thriller The Pale Blue Eye. Bamber will feature in the new Disney+ series Willow, and her previous credits include Nocturnal Animals, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and The Serpent, a real crime drama that aired last year. The film’s director, a veteran British TV director named Strong, has already overseen episodes of shows including Doctor Who, Broadchurch, and Vanity Fair, as well as several TV movies. The film Anna (formerly titled Mother Russia) will be produced by Miriam Segal and Paul Brennan of Good Films Collective in association with K. Kia Jam, founder of Jam Media, together with Richard Alan Reid of BuzzFeed Studios. The distribution and finance for this project will be handled by Luminosity Entertainment. Eric Poppen will be writing the script.
Later this month, filming for Anna will begin.