‘Atonement’ director returns to World War II with new movie ‘In the Garden of Beasts’

The director of Darkest Hour has revealed his next project.

English director Joe Wright will follow 2017’s Oscar-winning movie about Winston Churchill with an adaptation of In the Garden of Beasts.

Erik Larson’s non-fiction book – which was the full title of In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin – was published in 2011.

The book tells the story of William E. Dodd, who became America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Nazi Germany in 1933.

The movie will be produced by American actor Tom Hanks, who is rumoured to be playing the part of Dodd.

Prior to Darkest Hour, Joe Wright previously directed 2005’s Pride & Prejudice adaptation, romantic war drama Atonement, an adaptation of Anna Karenina in 2012, and 2015’s Peter Pan origin story Pan.

The official synopsis for In the Garden of Beasts reads: “A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, William E. Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the “New Germany,” she has one affair after another, including with the suprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels.

“But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate.

“As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance—and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition.”

Darkest Hour is available on DVD on Amazon.