"Director Joe Wright and Christopher Hampton, whose script is a model of page-to-screen adaptation, show extraordinary skill in building this hothouse of carnal tension Written, directed and acted to perfection, Atonement sweeps you up on waves of humor, heartbreak and ravishing romance."

--Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

"Christopher Hampton's screenplay retains both the emotional power of the [novel] and the central idea that one false move in youth can alter several lives forever."

--London Evening Standard

The task of adapting the acclaimed Ian McEwan novel to the screen was not a simple one. As McEwan says in the production notes: "It's a kind of demolition job.You've got to boil down 130,000 words to a screenplay containing 20,000 words...[Atonement] presents even greater difficulties because it's a very interior novel. It lives inside the consciousness of several characters. I think Christopher Hampton has steered a wise and clever course through the book."

The production notes and Hampton's introduction, written especially for this book, elaborate on the screenwriting challenge and on the collaboration between himself, Joe Wright, the BAFTA Award-winning director for Pride & Prejudice, and producers Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, and Paul Webster.

Introduction by Christopher Hampton

The Shooting Script

Stills

Production Notes

Cast and Crew Credits

Bios