Lily James, Paul Dano to Star in BBC, Weinstein Co. Miniseries 'War and Peace'

James Norton will join the 'Downton Abbey' and '12 Years a Slave' stars in the drama

Andrew Davies' adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace for the BBC and The Weinstein Co. will star Paul Dano (12 Years a Slave, Prisoners, There Will Be Blood), Lily James (Cinderella, Downton Abbey) and James Norton (Happy Valley, Belle).

The casting for the miniseries was announced on Sunday. It will consist of six one-hour episodes and will be directed by Tom Harper (Peaky Blinders, Woman in Black: Angel of Death).

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Dano will star as Pierre Bezukhov, James as Natasha Rostova and Norton as Prince Andrei Bolkonsky. Also part of the cast are Stephen Rea (An Honorable Woman) as Prince Vassily Kuragin, Ade Edmondson (Prey, Blood), Greta Scacchi (The Falling) as Count and Countess Rostov, Jack Lowden (The Tunnel) as Nikolai Rostov, Tom Burke (The Musketeers, The Hour) as Dolokhov and Aisling Loftus (Mr Selfridge) as Sonya.

Said James who is starring in Cinderella, which will be in theaters in 2015: “I am very excited and privileged to be playing Natasha, in this co-production between BBC and The Weinstein Company, of Tolstoy’s classic War And Peace. It is amazing to be part of such a prestigious cast and to appear in such a beautiful and rich adaptation by Andrew Davies.”

War and Peace is made by BBC Cymru Wales Drama in partnership with The Weinstein Co. and BBC Worldwide/Lookout Point. Filming will begin in January in Russia, Lithuania and Latvia.

Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman and executive producer for The Weinstein Co., said: “I fell in love with Tolstoy’s War and Peace as a teenager when I read it for the first time. Putting an epic, iconic story like War and Peace on screen with a cast of this caliber is an incredible thrill. Lily, Paul, and James are all amazingly talented actors, and it takes their level of talent to capture the scale of Tolstoy’s words. We are excited to get underway with Andrew Davies and the phenomenal team at BBC.”

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Said Charlotte Moore, controller of BBC One: “War and Peace will be a major event drama on BBC One and it is only fitting that Tolstoy’s epic masterpiece has attracted such a fine cast of actors to Andrew Davies’ stunning scripts.”

Ben Stephenson, controller of BBC Drama Commissioning, added: "The impressive array of talent assembled for this drama production is testament to the ambition and scale of this iconic story that we will bring to life for a new generation."

Email: Georg.Szalai@THR.com

Twitter: @georgszalai