New Stills Of Anne Hathaway & Jim Sturgess In Focus Features’ ONE DAY

Check out the new photos from director Lone Scherfig’s (AN EDUCATION) motion picture ONE DAY – adapted for the screen by David Nicholls from his bestselling novel One Day.

“The wit of David Nicholls’ writing appealed to me,” says One Day director Lone Scherfig. “But what compelled me was just how much of a real love story the piece is — and at a level you rarely come across.”

Film producer Nina Jacobson (THE HUNGER GAMES, DIARY OF A WIMPY KID), well-versed in recognizing books’ potential as movies and shepherding them to the screen, was struck by how much One Day affected her as she read it. She says, “I fell in love with the characters. The story is very universal. These characters, Emma and Dexter, and their journey truly speak to the way in which you transform after graduating from college and living your life; who you are then, and who you are twenty years later.

“It takes us time to grow up and until we do, we can’t necessarily be with the person we’re meant to be with. That time is necessary, yet it’s also something you can’t get back. So there is a wistful tone to the story.”

Eight weeks of filming ONE DAY took the cast and crew to locations in and around London, Edinburgh, and Paris through the summer of 2010.

Jim Sturgess (left) and Patricia Clarkson (right) star as Dexter and Alison Mayhew in the romance ONE DAY.

Romola Garai stars as Silvie in the romance ONE DAY

Anne Hathaway (left) and Rafe Spall (right) star as Emma and Ian in the romance ONE DAY

Author David Nicholls on the set of the romance ONE DAY

Director Lone Scherfig on the set of her romance ONE DAY

Anne Hathaway assesses working with Lone Scherfig as “a real lesson in everything. Lone would always make a choice that I couldn’t predict, whether it was a location or a scene approach.”

Jim Sturgess concurs, “Lone would have me play a sad scene with humor, and a funny scene with poignancy; she would change it up, encouraging you to try different things. This way, she had options on how to shape the piece. I trusted her completely.”

Hathaway comments that “about halfway through filming, I stopped trying to imagine the scenes in my head. I concentrated on knowing my lines and understanding why Emma was saying them — and then kind of left everything else up to Lone. Each day was dynamic because of her.”

Sturgess adds, “Because of that, for us each day on the set would feel like the first day on the set. Lone is possibly one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. But she also cares about every single person on the set, and navigated us to the right tone of the piece. The story holds a lot of layers. She was always tuned in to how to guide us through it.”

Hathaway relates, “We found the shared truth to tell Dex and Em’s story. As a result, there is a joyous quality to One Day.”

Scherfig concludes, “I wouldn’t want to make a movie that was lacking in love or in humor, and this one has a lot of both. So I hope audiences will laugh and cry — sometimes at the same time — with Emma and Dexter.”

Twenty years. Two people…

After one day together – July 15th, 1988, their college graduation – Emma Morley (Academy Award nominee Anne Hathaway) and Dexter Mayhew (Jim Sturgess of ACROSS THE UNIVERSE) begin a friendship that will last a lifetime. She is a working-class girl of principle and ambition who dreams of making the world a better place. He is a wealthy charmer who dreams that the world will be his playground.

For the next two decades, key moments of their relationship are experienced over several July 15ths in their lives. Together and apart, we see Dex and Em through their friendship and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears. Somewhere along their journey, these two people realize that what they are searching and hoping for has been there for them all along. As the true meaning of that one day back in 1988 is revealed, they come to terms with the nature of love and life itself.

ONE DAY will be released in theaters nationwide on Friday, August 19, 2011 and is MPAA-rated “PG-13” (for sexual content, partial nudity, language, some violence and substance abuse).

Visit the official movie site at www.ExperienceOneDay.com

 LIKE One Day on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OneDayMovie

Photo credit: Giles Keyte. Copyright © 2011 Focus Features, All rights reserved