Director Joe Wright told Empire Magazine (via Playlist) that three weeks before filming began for Anna Karenina, he scrapped routine plans to film in the UK and Russia. Instead, he desired something more experimental. He decided to film the majority of the Russian epic in a run down theatre stage built from scratch at Shepperton Studios.

Thus the tale of a love triangle within the Russian aristocracy and its themes of trying to find an authentic life will play out in a theatre with movie magic creating a "fluid linearity" says Wright. The stage will be an ice rink at one point, a train station the next - characters will "walk from one house under the 'stage' straight onto the horse training ground" and doors will lead to Russian landscapes.

Cutaway wide shots to show exteriors and scale will employ toy trains and dollhouses, while anachronistic flourishes (ie. props and elements from more modern and/or ancient times) will intrude as Anna's sanity unravels. Only Domhnall Gleeson's character Levin will venture outside the theatre as he is the only truly authentic character amongst a group of posers and is thus "able to go out in the real world".

source: Dark Horizons

In other Anna Karenina news, the first photo of Keira Knightley from Anna Karenina can be seen HERE.  

(thank you arco)