Up until earlier Thursday, one of the biggest blank spots at the end of the 2019 slate was Sam Mendes’ 1917, a World War I-set drama/action film with a great supporting cast that made us incredibly curious to see if Benedict Cumberbatch could fit into his uniform from War Horse back in 2011. Mendes, whose last film Spectre was, well, let’s say quite a bit less accomplished than his other Bond outing, seemed primed for a return to form far away from the franchise he spent most of this decade working in. But so much of it remained shrouded in mystery that it was hard to know if it would even come out this year. That all changed when Universal finally dropped a trailer for the film earlier Thursday, and you know what? It looks kinda like a Christopher Nolan film.
We’re not trying to say that Mendes’ film will inevitably be a carbon copy of Dunkirk; in addition to being about a totally different war, we imagine that the marketing department at Universal had a vision board solely composed of images of Harry Styles from Nolan’s opus. Obviously that would be the furthest thing from Mendes’ mind in crafting this story. All we’re saying is that its existential dread looks to be similar in style and substance, at least from the advertising.
Anyways, take a look at the trailer. It’s pretty cool, all things considered:
Here’s a synopsis:
“At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers, Schofield (‘Captain Fantastic’’s George MacKay) and Blake (‘Game of Thrones’’ Dean-Charles Chapman) are given a seemingly impossible mission. In a race against time, they must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers — Blake’s own brother among them. “
1917 hits select theaters on Christmas Day, before rolling out to cinemas everywhere on January 10.