We haven’t really had a hard-hitting war drama in a long time, but in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming epic, Dunkirk (2017), there could be a whole lot of hope for something meaningful. With a strong cast, combining new faces with seasoned veterans like Kenneth Branagh (My Week With Marilyn) and Tom Rylance (Bridge Of Spies), along with the incredible story of the Dunkirk evacuation, it could be another big release for Nolan, following up on Inception, The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar.
The trailer, which you can see below, is looking fairly impressive, although there are perhaps a few lines that might have been better saved for their impact in the full release of the film. Mark Rylance and Kenneth Branagh look like they’re going to be on Oscar-potential form and while you only see fleeting moments of Tom Hardy (Taboo: Series 2), he could well be a big part of the potential success of the film, having worked with Nolan before on the Batman trilogy.
Release date
The Dunkirk UK release date has been confirmed for Friday the 21st July 2017. It’ll be out in the US on the same date, so there should be a fair few reviews to check out before heading out to the cinema. It’s got a pretty clear release window at the box office in the UK with nothing significant confirmed for the same weekend as of yet, but it will be coming on the back of War For The Planet Of The Apes and Cars 3, which are both out the week before.
Story
If you’re not up on your military history, the Dunkirk evacuation took place early on in the Second World War as German troops penned-in an Allied force in the North of France. With disaster looming, the decision was taken to evacuate them back to the UK and the film centres on the lives of the servicemen that were either trapped on the beaches, or sent in to spearhead the evacuation. Codenamed Operation Dynamo, it was a significant point in the early phases of WWII.
Dunkirk trailer:
Cast
Newcomer, Fionn Whitehead, leads the cast in the lead role for the film, emphasising the age of the soldiers that were actually there back in 1940. He’s supported by Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh and Cillian Murphy. The rest of the cast includes Aneurin Barnard (BBC’s War And Peace adaptation), Harry Styles (of One Direction fame), James D’Arcy (Let’s Be Cops), Jack Lowden (also War And Peace), Barry Keoghan and Tom Glynn-Carney.
Murphy and Hardy have worked together a number of time, most recently in Peaky Blinders, but with one on the beach and other in the air, they probably don’t get too much, if any, time on camera together. They’ve both worked with Christopher Nolan too with Murphy starring in Batman Begins as The Scarecrow and Hardy playing Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, while both featured in Inception.
Age rating
While it hasn’t been classified in the UK as of yet, it’s been given an age rating of 13A in the US by the Motion Picture Association of America.
Production
Christopher Nolan directs the film from his own screenplay with Hoyte van Hoytema (Interstellar) director of photography. Nathan Crowley (The Dark Knight Rises) is the production design, Lee Smith (The Dark Knight Rises) the editor, Jeffrey Kurland (Inception) the costume designer, and Andrew Jackson (Mad Max: Fury Road) the visual effects supervisor. The film is produced by Nolan and Emma Thomas (Interstellar) and executive produced by Jake Myers (The Revenant).
Filming began in Dunkirk on the 23rd May 2016 and was shot in IMAX and 65mm film. You can see more on Christopher Nolan’s production on the official movie Twitter page, but in all fairness, they’re playing it all a little close to their chests at the moment.
First impressions
With an impressive trailer, good mix of experience and younger faces in the cast, and so much back catalogue crossfire in the production team, we’re expecting something special from Dunkirk. Filming must have felt a bit like a family reunion for both cast and crew, so it will hopefully mean there’s going to be a lot of strong delivery to the release later this year.
