Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson, multiple Grammy award winner Alicia Keys, Academy Award nominees Queen Latifah & Sophie Okonedo, British star Paul Bettany and, in her most mature role to date, Dakota Fanning, star in the touching coming-of-age drama The Secret Life of Bees.

Written and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and based on the internationally acclaimed novel by Sue Monk Kidd, the film features a powerhouse cast from the worlds of film and music, in an uplifting, soulful story of female emancipation. The film opens nationally in the UK and Ireland on 5th December 2008.

A touching story about the need for love, family and redemption, the film explores the landscape of Civil Rights era South Carolina, where fourteen year old Lily Owens (Dakota Fanning) and her caretaker Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson) make a pilgrimage in search of traces of the mother that Lily never knew. Their journey takes them to the home of the intelligent and independent honey-making Boatwright sisters (Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys and Sophie Okonedo) who welcome Lily and Rosaleen into their lives, provoking in each a new sense of purpose and spirituality. In this setting Lily is finally able to make sense of the traumas of her past, finding the love and maternal comfort that has never been forthcoming in the home of her frustrated father T Ray (Paul Bettany). Lily ultimately comes to the realization that sometimes you must leave home in order to find it.