Focus Features has confirmed it will handle the domestic release on Working Title’s upcoming classic adaptation based on a screenplay by Tom Stoppard. Universal Pictures International will distribute outside North America in the second half of 2012.

Keira Knightley will star in the title role alongside Jude Law as her husband Aleksei Karenin and Aaron Johnson as Count Vronsky. Kelly Macdonald, Matthew Macfadyen, Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Emily Watson, Olivia Williams and Ruth Wilson round out the cast.

Working Title co-chairs Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are producing with Paul Webster.

Leo Tolstoy’s classic tale takes place in late-19th Century Russian high-society and explores the capacity for love.

“Joe Wright is a master filmmaker, and with Tom Stoppard’s brilliant screenplay this Anna Karenina will be full of both pageantry and emotion,” Focus CEO James Schamus said.

“To realise Joe’s vision, we have the perfect producing partners in Working Title and Paul Webster, whose acumen is unsurpassed. With Keira Knightley playing this iconic role and a splendid cast supporting her, today’s moviegoers will be drawn to this powerful story.”

Wright previously directed Hannah, Atonement and Pride & Prejudice.

Title: Anna Karenina

Producer: Working Title

Director: Joe Wright

Cast: Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Kelly Macdonald, Matthew Macfadyen, Domhnall Gleeson

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