Believe it or not, but its been a decade since Sam Mendes' last film outside of the James Bond franchise, but he'll soon be bringing us a World War I epic unlike any other later this year. 1917 tells the story of two young British soldiers who are given the seemingly impossible mission of crossing into enemy territory in order to deliver a message which will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers. As we learned earlier this morning, 1917 has been shot to look as though it takes place over the course of one continuous take, not unlike Alfred Hitchcock's ROPE or Alejandro G. Iñárritu's BIRDMAN, and Universal Pictures has released a new featurette which gives us a little information on how they pulled this off as well as showing off some gorgeous footage from the film.
Sam Mendes said that it was "fundamentally an emotional choice" to have 1917 play out in real time. "I wanted to travel every step with these men—to breathe every breath with them. It needed to be visceral and immersive. What they are asked to do is almost impossibly difficult. The way the movie is made is designed to bring you as close as possible to that experience," Mendes explained. As much as I'm a fan of Mendes, it's Roger Deakins' work on the film which I'm really excited about.
The official synopsis for 1917:
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 is directed by Sam Mendes, who wrote the screenplay with Krysty Wilson-Cairns (Showtime’s Penny Dreadful).
1917 will see a limited-release on December 25, 2019, before opening wide on January 10, 2020.