It's Just Movies

Focus Features has announced a domestic theatrical release date of Friday, July 8, 2011, for “One Day,” directed by Lone Scherfig. David Nicholls has adapted his internationally praised and bestselling novel “One Day” into the screenplay for the movie.

Academy Award nominee Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess star in “One Day,” a co-production in the unique partnership of Random House Inc.’s Random House Films division and Focus. The U.K.’s Film4 is co-financing. Nina Jacobson (the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” movies) is producing “One Day,” and Tessa Ross, controller, Film4 & Channel 4 drama, is executive-producing.

After only one day together in 1989, Emma Morley (Hathaway) and Dexter Mayhew (Sturgess) cannot stop thinking about one another. Over the next 20 years, key moments of their relationship are revealed on the same day — July 15 — of each year. Dex and Em face friendship and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears. And as the true meaning of this one crucial day is revealed, they must come to grips with the nature of love and life itself.

The book was No. 1 on both the hardcover and paperback bestseller charts in the U.K. It was published in the U.S. as a trade paperback original last June 15 by Vintage Books, a paperback imprint of Random House, Inc.’s Knopf Doubleday Group. “One Day” spent 12 weeks on The New York Times Trade Paperback Fiction Bestseller list, rising to the No. 4 position.

The New York Times Book Review named “One Day” among the 100 Notable Books of 2010. People called the novel “an instant classic,” while Entertainment Weekly cited it as “[a] surprisingly deep romance [that is] so thoroughly satisfying.”

The domestic run will commence in select cities, as a platform release; additional cities and theaters will be added later in the prime summer play period. Focus holds worldwide rights – excluding U.K. free-TV, held by Film4 — to the movie version. The U.K. release will commence on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2011.

Academy Award winner Rachel Portman (“Emma”) has just been signed to compose the film’s original score. Filming took place last fall on location in the U.K., as well as in Scotland and France. Scherfig previously helmed the Best Picture Academy Award nominee “An Education.” Focus senior vice president, European production Teresa Moneo is supervising “One Day” with Focus director of production Matthew Plouffe for Focus president of production John Lyons. The film is also being supervised by Claudia Herr, executive story editor, for Random House Films president Peter Gethers.

Gethers commented, “This has been a wonderful process for all of us from beginning to end: from working with David Nicholls on the tremendously successful Vintage publication of the novel; to working with Focus during the development and film-making process; to seeing the superb film that Lone Scherfig has made. We’re all extremely excited that, come July, audiences will get to experience the film — and so many more people will go out and discover the book.”

In the unique multi-year film-making partnership between Random House Films and Focus, the companies develop movies together and co-finance and co-produce a substantial slate of feature films for theatrical release, all based on books published by Random House imprints in North America and internationally. Random House Films and Focus jointly acquire film rights for the books and partner together on script development, director selection, all phases of production, and marketing and publicity. Films co-produced by Focus with Random House Films are jointly owned, with Focus holding worldwide distribution and sales rights.

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