Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch brought The Roses, Jay Roach’s new telling of The War of the Roses, to Leicester Square the night before its release.
Searchlight Pictures gave Jay Roach’s The Roses its British opening night at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on Thursday 28 August 2025, a day ahead of its cinema release.
Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch led the cast on the carpet. Colman was born in Norwich in 1974, trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and broke through in the sitcom Peep Show. Broadchurch won her a BAFTA, The Favourite brought her the Academy Award for Best Actress as Queen Anne, and her Elizabeth II in The Crown won a Golden Globe and an Emmy. Cumberbatch was born in Hammersmith in 1976, studied drama at Manchester and classical acting at LAMDA, and won the Olivier Award for Frankenstein at the National Theatre. Sherlock made his name worldwide, and The Imitation Game and The Power of the Dog each brought him an Academy Award nomination.
Roach directed from a screenplay by Tony McNamara, adapting Warren Adler’s 1981 novel The War of the Roses and reimagining the 1989 film. Cumberbatch played Theo, an architect, and Colman played Ivy, a chef, a couple whose apparently perfect marriage begins to fall apart.
Kate McKinnon, Allison Janney and Ncuti Gatwa joined the two leads on the carpet. The film opened in Britain and the United States on 29 August 2025, with Andy Samberg among the supporting cast, and went on to gross $52 million worldwide.