As State of Play readies for release in the UK, director Kevin Macdonald takes us through a gallery of behind-the-scenes stills from the production...

"I was sent the script through at the end of 2006 and I was somewhat dubious about the idea of turning such a good TV series into a film. Brad Pitt was attached at that time and I went to go and see him to talk about the possibility of doing it and we spent an afternoon chatting about it. What we both agreed on was that to set a film in the world of journalism was a wonderful idea. I've always loved films set in that world because you have a lot of excuses for such wonderful eccentric characters but without the clichés. We also thought that now was the time to make a film about the crisis in journalism and particularly in newspapers. We thought that was an interesting theme."