Following a brief streak of wrangling real-life dramas onto the silver screen (see The Walk and Flight), esteemed director Robert Zemeckis is bound for World War II with Allied, a romantic drama that finds Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard in lead roles.
Aligned to enter the Oscar race in November, People has today premiered our first look at Allied and the “electric” chemistry between its leading duo.
On one hand, Brad Pitt – no stranger to wartime pics following Inglorious Basterds and Fury – is playing elusive assassin Max Vatan who, while on a mission to Casablanca, encounters Marion Cotillard’s French Resistance fighter, Marianne Beausejour. An impassioned love affair ensues, though things soon turn deadly when a plot to kill a high-ranking German officer emerges.
In tandem with today’s reveal, which signals that a trailer isn’t too far off, producer Graham King told People that, “Brad and Marion immediately had the utmost respect for each other, so once they delved into their characters, their chemistry was electric. It was crucial for Brad and Marion to not only begin rehearsing together before the shoot, but they also spent a lot of time developing their characters with the director. By the time we got to set, it was really amazing to see these characters already feel lived in and real.”
Allied will muscle its way into the awards race when Zemeckis’ wartime drama opens in theaters on November 23.
