Esteemed director and all-round cinephile Christopher Nolan is aiming big with his WWII epic, Dunkirk.
Having already rented out a pair of old navy destroyers and assembled close to 1,000 extras for a massive action sequence, Nolan is gunning for a wartime spectacle that hasn’t been glimpsed on the silver screen since Steven Spielberg and Saving Private Ryan stormed Omaha Beach.
Now, a new report arriving by way of Indie Revolver suggests that the filmmaker and Warner Bros. are ready to purchase a $5 million vintage plane – likely a German Luftwafee – to be retrofitted with IMAX cameras and, after staging a few sure-to-be stunning action shots, gunned down in a ball of flames.
That’s exactly the kind of lavish creative process Christopher Nolan has developed a reputation for, and considering that Warner is hoping Dunkirk can reach similar box office heights as Inception ($835 million), it’s little wonder why the studio is willing to facilitate the director’s blue-sky thinking.
Referred to as Operation Dynamo in military speak, Nolan’s wartime epic centers on a regiment of Allied troops – around 330,000 in total – cornered off by the invading Axis forces. Pushed into a corner in northern France, the Allies staged an unprecedented rescue mission to save the French, British and Belgian troops, an event that is remembered as one the great war stories of all time.
In terms of the cast on board, expect Nolan’s infantry regiment to comprise Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, newcomer Fionn Whitehead, Aneurin Barnard, James D’Arcy, Jack Lowden, Barry Keoghan, Tom Glynn-Carney and, surprisingly, One Direction member Harry Styles.
Christopher Nolan will chronicle the death-defying tale of Operation Dynamo when Dunkirk opens in theaters on July 21, 2017. According to Indie Revolver’s sources, Warner Bros. is also aligning the movie’s first teaser trailer to open opposite Suicide Squad in August.
