Amazing Grace is a 2007 film directed by Michael Apted about the anti-slavery movement in 19th Century Britain led by the famous abolitionist William Wilberforce. The film will star Ioan Gruffudd as William Wilberforce, Albert Finney as John Newton, Rufus Sewell as Thomas Clarkson, Benedict Cumberbatch as William Pitt the Younger, Romola Garai as Barbara Spooner, the woman William Wilberforce married, and Ciarán Hinds as Sir Banastre Tarleton. Richard Bailey. Michael Gambon also stars in the Walden Media feature. The film premièred at the closing of the Toronto Film Festival on September 16, 2006 and its US première was at the opening of the Heartland Film Festival, Indianapolis, Indiana on October 19, 2006, after which director Michael Apted participated in a question and answer session. The film is scheduled for wider release on February 23, 2007 through IDP, to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the date the British Parliament voted to ban the slave trade. |