Tom Stoppard: 'Anna Karenina comes to grief because she has fallen in love for the first time'

Tom Stoppard says his original approach to writing the screenplay for Joe Wright's new film adaptation of Anna Karenina was for a fast, modern movie about being in lust. Then wiser counsels – including his own – prevailed

Robert McCrum
Sunday 2 September 2012 00.04 BST

T

he latest film adaptation of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina began in what Tom Stoppard calls "a normal kind of way", though it did not exactly have a normal outcome. Sitting in his penthouse flat in west London with his back to a stunning view of the Thames, he lights the first of the six cigarettes that will measure out this conversation.

"Somebody rang my agent, Anthony Jones," he says, before adding: "It was to ask if I was up for adapting Anna Karenina for Joe Wright. It was Joe's choice of movie."

Joe Wright / Pride & Prejudice

Pride & Prejudice

Joe Wright's cinematic debut takes Austen's classic at a brisk pace, underpinned by a brace of outstanding performances

Philip French
Sunday 18 September 2005 00.11 BST

I

t is a truth by Universal acknowledged that a British producer in possession of Hollywood finance must be in want of a period screenplay. So it's scarcely surprising that the British production company Working Title, having disappointed its American financiers Universal Studios with the contemporary comedy, Wimbledon, should turn to Jane Austen's perennially popular 1813 novel, Pride and Prejudice.

Keira Knightley: 'I was trying to keep hold of a real, raw Anna Karenina'

BIOGRAPHY

For Keira Knightley, the key to playing Tolstoy's tragic heroine in Joe Wright's adaptation of Anna Karenina was endless research

Jason Solomons
Sunday 2 September 2012 00.04 BST

Did you have any idea how the film would look when you were shooting?

Not really, no. I think we all had little pieces of it in our head, but only Joe [Wright, the director,] really knew. If I'm honest, I think he tried to explain it to us, collectively and individually, but no one really knew quite what he was going on about. If I hadn't worked with him before, maybe I would have panicked but I've learned to just trust him over the years and it helps you dive in.

Alicia Vikander / 'Filming Anna Karenina was one of the most fantastic adventures I've ever had'

Alicia Vikander as Kitty
in Anna Karenina

Alicia Vikander: 

'Filming Anna Karenina was one of the most fantastic adventures I've ever had'

Alicia Vikander, who plays Kitty in Joe Wright's adaptation of Anna Karenina, talks about her location shoot in wintry Russia


Tim Lewis
Sunday 2 September 2012 00.05 BST

There are many things you can do on a soundstage at Shepperton Studios, but some settings are impossible to recreate. So it was that 23-year-old Alicia Vikander, one of the most exciting actresses in Europe right now, found herself bound for St Petersburg with a small crew, including her co-star Domhnall Gleeson. From there, they travelled deep into barely charted Russia: nine hours north by train, then five hours on a bus without heating and finally a hovercraft for a couple of hours over the ice. There are times when acting can be just about the most glamorous gig on Earth; this was not one of them.

"It was 40 below, we didn't have hot water for five days and slept in a cabin, on a bench," Vikander recalls. "On our call sheets it actually said: 'Beware of wolves. They are known to attack lone humans.' We saw a wolf one time, and a bear, but there were some very tough Russian security guys who came along."