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Four-time Oscar nominee Saorise Ronan is set to join the ensemble of Steve McQueen’s next film Blitz from Apple Original Films. McQueen will write, direct and produce the film, which tells the stories of Londoners during the Blitz of World War II. It is scheduled to begin filming later this year.

McQueen’s Lammas Park produces alongside Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title Films, and Arnon Milchan, Yariv Milchan and Michael Schaefer from New Regency. This reunites McQueen with New Regency, where he made the Best Picture Oscar winner 12 Years a Slave and 2018’s Widows. Blitz was developed and packaged by New Regency under McQueen’s first-look deal.

The film adds another high-profile feature with awards potential to Apple’s development slate, which is what made Blitz such a big target when it hit the market. For McQueen, it marks his return to the feature scene following his acclaimed anthology series Small Axe, which explored life for West Indian immigrants in London and won five BAFTAs. He then co-directed and produced three documentaries for BBC and Amazon: Black Power: A British Story of Resistance, Subnormal: A British Scandal and Uprising.

Ronan has earned Oscar noms for Little Women, Lady Bird, Brooklyn and Atonement and most recently was seen in the Searchlight pic See How They Run and The French Dispatch. She recently wrapped production on the Garth Davis pic Foe opposite Paul Mescal.

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