The 360-minute miniseries will be released on BBC One late next year. The novel was adapted for television by legendary British Screenwriter Andrew Davies, known for his adaptations of Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice, William Thackeray's Vanity Fair and the original, British version of the political thriller House of Cards.
Discussing Tolstoy's epic, Davies describes it as "a story of the hopes and dreams of youth, set against the titanic background of the Napoleonic wars." Davies notes that the novel is "a gallery of unforgettable characters," featuring "love, friendship, huge swings of fortune, betrayals, tragedy, and a surprising amount of comedy too." The screenwriter notes that when he "came to War and Peace for the first time, rather late in life," he was "struck by how fresh and modern the characters and relationships felt," the BBC noted.
Describing the three main characters, Davies noted that there's "Pierre, the bumbling, chaotic idealist, Prince Andrei, whose cool Darcy-like exterior conceals huge emotional conflict, and Natasha Rostova, possibly the most appealing heroine in literature."
Harvey Weinstein, whose company is producing the series with the BBC, said that he fell in love with Tolstoy's novel as a teenager. He noted that "putting an epic, iconic story like War and Peace on screen with a cast of this caliber is an incredible thrill." He added that "Lily [James], Paul [Dano] and James [Norton] are all amazingly talented actors and it takes their level of talent to capture the scale of Tolstoy's words," the BBC quoted him as saying.
The miniseries is the first British adaptation of Tolstoy's novel in over 40 years; the BBC had produced a version in 1972 starring Anthony Hopkins. The most critically acclaimed version of the grand drama remains Sergei Bondarchuk's 1969 Oscar-winning epic.
On New Year's Day, BBC's Radio 4 is set to broadcast a separate, 10-hour audio dramatization of the novel, staring Simon Russell Beale, John Hurt and Lesley Manville, The Telegraph explained.
