Back in February we heard that there was going to be a film about Charles Darwin focussing on his family, the death of his daughter, and the struggles between his beliefs on evolution and his wife's on religion. Then, at the start of the month, we heard that Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly had been cast as Darwin husband and wife.

Now there's news that they aren't the leads any more, and that the cast has changed, and that Rosamund Pike and Joseph Fiennes have taken over the roles.

At the time I was hopeful of the film and the cast line up, and the only concern I really thought that the production had was a possibility of it being hijacked by the religious agenda and not focussing on the growing divide between the two where Darwin became more and more agnostic and his wife remained deeply religious.

As a reminder, the film is based on the book by Randal Keynes called Annie's Box (Annie's Box / Amazon.com), Darwin was Keynes' great grandfather, and the book looks at his time researching and chronicling evolution in The Origin of the Species (Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Play.com), the death of his daughter at a very young age, and how he struggled with his wife's religious beliefs, his views of evolution, and his growing agnosticism.

The story, which comes from WENN through IMDB and Jo Blo, says that previously husband and wife Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly were only rumoured, and now Rosamund Pike and Joseph Fiennes, and the quote from the story has Pike saying:

“I'm definitely a Darwinist, but playing his wife has been a real eye-opener. She was very religious and his discoveries placed a heavy strain on their marriage. We are exploring different angles to the story.”

Well I have to agree with Daniel here, Bettany and Connelly seemed a great choice, and that's putting aside the husband and wife matter. However both Pike and Fiennes could carry off these roles well too, they are both excellent actors, they've done roles in the same period, and they both have the strength to carry off such big roles.

What I find most attractive about this story is that it mirrors the real life struggle going on in America at the moment, a struggle that's creeping into the UK as well.