]According to Baz Bamigboye over at The Daily Mail, Liev Schreiber (‘Goon’), Sally Hawkins (‘Happy-Go-Lucky’) and Romola Garai (‘Atonement’) have all signed on to star in Irish filmmaker Ruairi Robinson’s sci-fi ‘The Last Days on Mars.’

The official synopsis:

“As their last day on Mars draws to a close, the astronaut crew is on the verge of a major breakthrough – collected rock specimens reveal microscopic evidence of life. Meanwhile, communication is underway with AURORA, the approaching spacecraft that will relieve the crew of their operations. In their last hours on the planet, two astronauts go back to SITE 9, a cavernous valley on the surface of Mars, to collect further evidence of their discovery. But a routine excavation turns deadly when one of them falls to his death and his body taken host and re-animated by the very life form they sought to discover.”

Principal photography is scheduled to kick off mid-July on locations in the UK and Jordan. Focus Features International and Qwerty Films will co-produce.

Romola Garai is in talks to join the cast of Focus Features’ romantic comedy “One Day.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film is based on a novel by British author David Nicholls, who adapted the screenplay. Lone Scherfig is directing with Nina Jacobson producing.

Production begins this summer in London.

The film revolves around Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter (Jim Sturgess) who meet during their 1988 graduation and proceed to meet one day a year for the next 20 years until they realize they were meant for each other.

Garai will play the woman Dexter marries then divorces over those years.

Garai’s film credits include “Atonement” and “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights.”

I found this Q & A session with Romola online.

Q: How was it shooting in those gorgeous country piles in Norfolk?
A: It was great. Everything was shot in Norfolk apart from a week at the end in London. Norfolk’s amazing, really atmospheric and beautiful.

The only trouble was that everybody knows WWII started in August but we shot in November and it was freezing.

I will never forget the picnic scene where Jeremy Northam, Bill Nighy and Julie Christie were shaking with the cold.

The director turned round to do a shot on me and they were all like: “Do you need us here? We’re so cold.” The one thing I was really pleased about when I saw it was it doesn’t look like we’re that cold.

Q: Did you enjoy wearing the clothes from that era?
A: Yes, it’s a beautiful era. And I really love costume – it’s my favourite dressing-up box moment. Annie, from the costume department, was brilliant.

She made strong colour choices for my character, really using primary colours, which you don’t see very often.

People tend to be afraid of them. When she came out saying, “This is the dress I want you to wear”, I was standing there going, “Very brave choice.” But they were brilliant, she’s a very clever woman.

Q: You’ve played Emma in the TV adaptation of Emma and starred in period films like Atonement and Amazing Grace, so we won’t be seeing you in a binki role then?
A: I’m saying I wouldn’t do it but nobody’s asked me yet .

Source: Daily Record

Here is a nice read about Romola in the upcoming Jane Austen’s Emma.

On camera, Romola Garai is a luminous goddess, but in person she tones it down, wearing her beauty lightly. You could walk past her without looking twice.

When I meet her in The Bar at The Dorchester hotel, where she has just finished her photo shoot, she has changed into her own clothes – tomboyish chinos and a T-shirt – and the only sign of her previous incarnation are her eyes, incongruously smudged with make-up. Am I looking sultry?’ she laughs.

At only 27, she has an impressive CV, having lit up films such as I Capture the Castle, Vanity Fair and Atonement. She has acted with the RSC and on the West End stage, and now she has the lead role in two major new productions: a miniseries of Jane Austen’s Emma with Jonny Lee Miller and Michael Gambon for the BBC; and Stephen Poliakoff’s Glorious 39 with Julie Christie and Bill Nighy.

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