Keira Knightley new movie Silent Night out this December

Keira Knightley and Downton Abbey actor Matthew Goode will appear together in a new dystopian Christmas film, and the first previews have just been released.

Dark comedy Silent Night is set to hit UK cinemas on December 3, having already won Best Screenplay and the Audience Award at the 2021 Sitges Film Festival.

Silent Night’ Was ‘One of the Most F–ed Up’ Scripts She’d Ever Read

36 year-old Keira Knightley

It really made me laugh,” she added. “I think part of my story with this film is when I first read it, I was seven months pregnant and it had been one hell of a pregnancy and I had been sick for sick months, and then I got sciatica, and I was really really angry, like profoundly angry and uncomfortable, and we went to France so I could be in a swimming pool so I could have like five seconds where I didn’t feel pain, and there I read the script and I just laughed and laughed and my husband was like, ‘what is it about?’ and I said, ‘They all die! They all kill each other!’”

Silent Night follows a group of old friends who – in true British fashion and while the rest of the world faces impending doom – reunite to celebrate Christmas in the comfort of an idyllic country home. Burdened with the inconvenience of mankind’s imminent destruction, they adopt a stiff upper lip, crack open another bottle of Prosecco and continue with their festivities. But no amount of stoicism can replace the courage needed for their last night on Earth.

The official synopsis reads: “In true British fashion, (while the rest of the world faces impending doom), a group of old friends reunite to celebrate Christmas in the comfort of an idyllic country home.

“Burdened with the inconvenience of mankind’s imminent destruction, they adopt a stiff upper lip, crack open another bottle of prosecco and continue with their festivities. But no amount of stoicism can replace the courage needed for their last night on earth.”

Alongside Knightley and Goode, the movie will also star Roman Griffin Davis, who played the lead role in Jojo Rabbit, The King and Voyagers star Lily-Rose Depp, and Peaky Blinders‘ Annabelle Wallis.

The movie centres on Knightley, Goode and Davis, who play couple Nell and Simon and their son Art, as they host the dinner party for their family and friends.

It marks a reunion for Knightley and Goode, who previously starred together in Alan Turing biopic The Imitation Game and true crime film Official Secrets.

Ṣọpé Dìrísù (The Huntsman: Winter’s War, Gangs of London), Kirby Howell-Baptiste (The Good Place, Killing Eve), Lucy Punch (Bad Teacher, A Series of Unfortunate Events) and Rufus Jones (Episodes, Hunderby) also star.

The festive film was produced by UK studio Altitude Media Group, which was also behind Academy Award winners Moonlight and Minari, and recent hits Pig, starring Nicolas Cage, and Night of the Kings.

The movie marks writer and director Camille Griffin’s feature film debut, supported by producer Matthew Vaughn of Marv Films, and Trudie Styler and Celine Rattray of Maven Screen Media.

Silent Night is released in UK and Irish cinemas on December 3, 2021.