Ritesh Batra (The Lunchbox) to begin shooting next week.

Michelle Dockery

Charlotte Rampling, Harriet Walter, Emily Mortimer and Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery have joined Jim Broadbent in the film adaptation of The Sense Of An Ending, Julian Barnes’ 2011 Man Booker Prize winning novel.

Broadbent will play divorced retiree Tony Webster, who learns that the mother of his university girlfriend, Veronica, left in her will a diary kept by his best friend who dated Veronica after she and Tony parted ways. 

Tony’s quest to recover the diary, now in Veronica’s possession, forces him to revisit his flawed recollections of his friends and of his younger self.

Also joining the cast are rising British actors Billy Howle, soon to appear opposite Annette Bening and Saoirse Ronan in the big screen adaptation of Chekov’s The Seagull; Freya Mavor (Sunshine on Leith, The White Queen); and Joe Alwyn; recently cast as the eponymous star in Ang Lee’s upcoming Iraq War drama Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.

Ritesh Batra, director of BAFTA-nominated The Lunchbox, will begin seven weeks of principal photography on August 16 on location in London and Bristol.

The novel has been adapted for the screen by playwright Nick Payne (Constellations).

Producers are David Thompson and Ed Rubin of Origin Pictures and executive producers are Christine Langan and Ed Wethered for BBC Films, Ben Browning and Glen Basner from FilmNation, and Norman Merry from LipSync Productions.

BBC Films, LipSync Productions and FilmNation Entertainment are financing the film. FilmNation has acquired worldwide rights (excluding UK TV).

Origin Pictures’ recent productions include Woman in GoldX+Y, What We Did on Our Holiday and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.

The project is Payne’s first foray into film adaptation following his success on the stage with the multi-award winning Constellations, and is Batra’s first film since the critically acclaimed Cannes hit The Lunchbox in 2013. 

Director of photography is Chris Ross (Black Sea) and costume designer is Odile Dicks-Mireaux (An Education, Brooklyn). Jacqueline Abrahams (How I Live Now) is production designer and the makeup designer is Nadia Stacey (Pride).