Co-written by Steve McQueen and best-selling novelist and screenwriter Gillian Flynn, Widows stars Academy Award-winner Viola Davis (Fences, HTGAWM, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby) and is a complex thriller about a group of women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands’ criminal activities. Taking place in contemporary Chicago, amid a time of political and class turmoil, tensions build when Veronica (Viola Davis), Alice (Elizabeth Debicki), Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) and Belle (Cynthia Erivo) take their fate into their own hands and conspire to forge a future on their own terms.                                                                                      Based on the TV series “Widows” by Lynda La Plante, the film sees Steve McQueen as producer along with Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Arnon Milchan; and a star-studded ensemble cast: Viola Davis (HTGAWM), Michelle Rodriguez (Avatar), Elizabeth Debicki (The Night Manager), Cynthia Erivo (Mr. Selfridge), Colin Farrell (Winter’s Tale), Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out) and Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook)with Robert Duvall (Jack Reacher) and Liam Neeson (Road).                                                    The international premiere will take place on Wednesday 10 October at the Cineworld, Leicester Square.                                                                                                                                Director and co-writer Steve McQueen comments:
“I am absolutely delighted that Widows will be opening this year’s BFI London Film Festival. Watching the UK TV version of Lynda La Plante’s original thriller as a teenager in the 80s had a major impact on me and so it feels very special to be sharing this film with a UK audience.”
BFI London Film Festival Artistic Director, Tricia Tuttle says:
“We treasure the work of BFI Fellow and Festival alumni Steve McQueen, so it’s an utter pleasure to open our Festival with the international premiere of Widows. Adapted from a ground-breaking UK television classic into a feature to savour on the biggest cinema screens, this is scintillatingly rich storytelling from a magnificent filmmaker, probing issues around race, class and gender, while always delivering immense style and crackingly sharp thrills.”

Widows is released in cinemas across the UK and Ireland on 9 November.

The 62nd BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express takes place from Wednesday 10 October-Sunday 21 October 2018.