Shooting finished on HOPE GAP

The film is now shot, and we're in the editing process. Five weeks of intense work, in Seaford for the exteriors, in Leeds for various interiors, and in an industrial estate near Doncaster for the studio work. All strangely surreal. But we completed the schedule on time, thanks to the commitment of the crew and the skills of our cinematographer Anna Valdez Hanks, and the result - what can I say? I'm excited by what we've got, but daren't admit it. Some kind of superstitious dread stops me from admitting even to myself how high my hopes now reach. Enough to say the three lead actors, Annette Bening, Bill Nighy and Josh O'Connor have exceeded my wildest expectations. Whatever the limits of my work as director, their performances are superb.

The film will be put together over the next three months or so, and only then will I find out how others respond to it. I have some experience of working on films, of loving and admiring the end result, and then looking on as they receive no better than a limp response once out in the cinemas: so I'm braced for whatever comes. All I can say is that I now know the film will be all that I wanted it to be. I'm already proud of it.

No release date fixed at this stage. I would hope to see it come out in autumn next year, but it could be later.