The first trailer for Sam Mendes’ upcoming World War I film 1917 has been revealed. This film marks Mendes’ first post-007 project following Skyfall in 2012 and Spectre in 2015.
Though very little has been revealed about 1917 ever since its announcement, the only details about the film were vague at best, simply describing it as as a film set during World War I - in 1917, specifically. The screenplay was penned by Krysty Wilson-Cairns, who was originally a staff writer on the Showtime series Penny Dreadful. Mendes, on the other hand, earned an Academy Award for Best Director in 2000 for American Beauty, and, aside from the 007 films, he’s best known for films like Revolutionary Road with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio and Road to Perdition with Tom Hanks and Paul Newman. Now, 1917, which stars Richard Madden, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, George MacKay, and Dean-Charles Chaplin finally has a trailer to shed some light on Mendes’ upcoming film.
The trailer highlights a complicated plot in which two British soldiers (MacKay and Chapman) must deliver an urgent message in order to prevent the deaths of nearly 1,600 soldiers. To do this, they’re not only forced to pass through enemy territory, but are hardly given enough time to successfully pull it off. Check out the trailer below:
1917 will be the first time both MacKay and Chapman have starred in a mainstream film. MacKay’s most recent starring roles include Ophelia, in which he starred as Hamlet opposite Daisy Ridley, and Captain Fantastic opposite Viggo Mortensen. Chapman, on the other hand, is perhaps best known for his role as Tommen Baratheon in Game of Thrones, though he also starred in the AMC series Into the Badlands and will take on yet another role of royalty in Netflix’s The King opposite Timothée Chalamet and future Dark Knight Robert Pattinson.
Though this is Mendes’ first film set during World War I, it’s not his first experience with war films in general. In 2005, Mendes directed Jake Gyllenhaal in Jarhead. Only, Jarhead was hardly a traditional war movie, focusing primarily on a US marine sniper’s emotionally strained experience during The Gulf War, and less on any actual fighting. 1917 looks to be a more traditional war picture, sendings it characters directly into battle. Between the intense pacing, the plot’s near-suicide mission, and Mendes bringing the same attention to detail - and precision with action - that he’s brought to his other films, 1917 looks to be an impressive entry in an already impressive filmography.
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- 1917 Release Date: 2019-12-25
