Universal Pictures have today unveiled our first look at their upcoming biopic Darkest Hour, which you can view in the player below!

Directed by Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement), the film stars Academy Award Nominee Gary Oldman as the famous British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Rather than tell a typical biopic of the man, the film concentrates on a moment in time during the war where Churchill is trying to negotiate a peace treaty with Germany as well as trying to rally the nation against the Nazi forces heading across Europe.

Alongside Oldman are Lily James (Baby Driver), Stephen Dillane (The Crown), Kristen Scott-Thomas (Suite Francaise) and Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) and is written by Andrew McCarten (The Theory of Everything, Bohemian Rhapsody). Working Title Films have produced the film.

Darkest hour movie poster

Here’s the official synopsis:

Within days of becoming Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill (BAFTA-Award® winner Gary Oldman) must face one of his most turbulent and defining trials: exploring a negotiated peace treaty with Nazi Germany, or standing firm to fight for the ideals, liberty and freedom of a nation. As the unstoppable Nazi forces roll across Western Europe and the threat of invasion is imminent, and with an unprepared public, a sceptical King, and his own party plotting against him, Churchill must withstand his darkest hour, rally a nation, and attempt to change the course of world history.

The film has already been getting a lot of buzz even before it’s release, not least due to the fact that Oldman is almost unrecognisable in the make-up as Churchill. Expect the film to be prominent during this year’s festival and awards season’s, and we may even see the film as part of this year’s BFI London Film Festival. Watch this space.

Darkest Hour is set for release in the UK on January 22nd, 2018.