- Title: Cast of 'Dunkirk' surprised by final film
- Date: 19th July 2017
- Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 18, 2017) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** SINGER AND ACTOR HARRY STYLES SHAKING HANDS WITH DUNKIRK CASTMATES CAST OF DUNKIRK POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHER NOLAN AND PRODUCER EMMA THOMAS POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS NOLAN AND THOMAS WALKING AWAY FIONN WHITEHEAD, ACTOR, POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS (SOUNDBITE) (English) FIONN WHITEHEAD, ACTOR, SAYING: "Working with Chris (Nolan) came around quite luckily, really. He was casting far and wide in the UK, because he really wanted to get young British guys involved as much as possible. So I really just went in for the audition and kind of took it from there. I feel incredibly lucky to be here." WHITEHEAD SPEAKING WITH REPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) FIONN WHITEHEAD, ACTOR, SAYING: "It's very overwhelming to see posters with my face on them. I am not sure if I will ever get used to that." ANEURIN BARNARD, ACTOR, WALKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) ANEURIN BARNARD, ACTOR, SAYING: "It was epic. The movie is epic now, but it was an amazingly epic process. There were so many numbers, there were so many gadgets, there were so many cameras. There were helicopters, spitfires, destroyers, actors. It was just so much fun. Every day I was like a little five-year-old going to work, and being in an epic war movie, a lot of fun." VARIOUS OF KENNETH BRANAGH, ACTOR, POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS (SOUNDBITE) (English) KENNETH BRANAGH, ACTOR, SAYING: "The combination, the inter-generational combination that Chris Nolan was after, was to see people who were clearly in the previous war, for whom there were a paternal instinct about the young men who they had been. And in the First World War they lost a whole generation, and my generation as it were in this conflict didn't want that to happen I think. So there was a necessity I think to cast it with so-called 'veterans', like me and Mark Rylance, and we are the veterans really and the others are much younger, I think. But for what it's worth Tom (Hardy) and Cillian (Murphy). But set that against the bright shiny newness of Fionn (Whitehead) and Aneurin (Barnard) and Barry (Keoghan) and Harry (Styles)." CILLIAN MURPHY, ACTOR, SPEAKING WITH REPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) CILLIAN MURPHY, ACTOR, SAYING: "For me it was watching Chris (Nolan) really push himself and challenge himself and his form and his approach to filmmaking and his philosophy he really took them to the edge. And he pushed his actors and his crew and I think you can see the results of that on the television, or film screen I should say." WIDE VIEW OF CARPET (SOUNDBITE) (English) JAMES D'ARCY, ACTOR, SAYING: "The nature of the film being what it is, I didn't see so much of it when we were shooting. So the bits that I was involved in broadly looked like the way I imagined they would look but I didn't see any of the aerial sequences, I didn't see any of the stuff on the boat so, so I was absolutely as much of an audience member as the next person during all of that." DUNKIRK POSTER AND EXTERIOR OF LINCOLN SQUARE THEATER
- Embargoed: 2nd August 2017 02:02
- Keywords: Dunkirk film premiere Christopher Nolan
- Location: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES / UNKNOWN LOCATIONS
- City: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES / UNKNOWN LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Film
- Reuters ID: LVA0016QDSJ0T
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Cast and crew of epic World War II movie 'Dunkirk' made a stop in New York on Tuesday (July 18) for its U.S. premiere.
Directed by Christopher Nolan, the movie is a visual spectacle recounting the battle of Dunkirk, in which 400,000 British, French and Belgian soldiers were trapped on French beaches by German forces.
Described as a "miracle of deliverance" at the time by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the 1940 evacuation was considered one of several key events that determined the outcome of World War Two.
Fionn Whitehead makes his feature film debut as lead cast member "Tommy", a British private trapped on Dunkirk beach who desperately tries to get back home.
He said that it's overwhelming to see his face on posters plastered across New York.
In the film Nolan uses a mix of established actors, as well as newcomers, to represent the "inter-generational" feeling that must have been present during World War II.
"To see people who were clearly in the previous war, for whom there were a paternal instinct about the young men who they had been. And in the First World War they lost a whole generation, and my generation as it were in this conflict didn't want that to happen, I think," explained veteran actor Kenneth Branagh.
Actor James D'Arcy, said that the scale of the production was so big that he was blown away by the final product.
"I didn't see any of the aerial sequences, I didn't see any of the stuff on the boat so, so I was absolutely as much of an audience member as the next person during all of that," he said.
Nolan used thousands of extras and tracked down dozens of surviving ships from the period to recreates Operation Dynamo as truthfully as possible. Some 338,000 soldiers were rescued between May 27 and June 3, 1940, by warships and a flotilla of pleasure boats and other small craft.
"Dunkirk" is due to open in movie theaters on July 21, 2017. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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