World War II back on screen in a big way
More than 70 years later, we’re still not done with World War II.
Not long ago, the setting was considered played out in Hollywood. But the announcement of Ridley Scott’s intent to take on “The Battle of Britain” serves as more proof the second war to end all wars isn’t over — in the cinematic consciousness, anyway.
And why not? It was arguably the last major military conflict in which the cause was relatively uncontroversial.
That makes such more recent war movies much easier to sell than the queasily shaded “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,” “Eye in the Sky” or even Academy Award best picture “The Hurt Locker” — all critically acclaimed films about current or recent conflicts that didn’t do well at the box office.
After a relative production lull in the 2000s, World War II movies since 2011 have included “The Debt,” “The Way Back,” “Red Tails,” “The Book Thief,” “Fury,” “The Imitation Game,” “Unbroken,” “The Monuments Men,” “Allied,” “Anthropoid” and even “Captain America: The First Avenger.” Multiple Oscar nominee “Hacksaw Ridge” even rehabilitated Mel Gibson’s reputation in Hollywood.
Among the many, many foreignlanguage examples during this time: “Stalingrad,” “The Flowers of War” and Oscar nominees “The Wind Rises,” “Land of Mine” and Oscar winner “Son of Saul.”
This year’s major-release slate includes “HHhH,” based on Larent Binet’s novel about the assassination of Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich in Prague and starring Jason Clarke and Mia Wasikowska; “Churchill,” starring Brian Cox and Miranda Richardson; “Atonement” director Joe Wright’s “Darkest Hour,” another movie about Churchill; the current “The Zookeeper’s Wife,” starring Jessica Chastain; and probably the most anticipated film to open this year, Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk.”
“Dunkirk” is a giant epic (shot on 65mm Imax film stock) whose cast includes Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy and Oscar winner Mark Rylance. It opens July 21.
To see a trailer for “The Zookeeper’s Wife”: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=eiEfrA6MWs4
To see the “Dunkirk” trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v =F-eMt3SrfFU
Trivia question
According to Box Office Mojo, what is the highest-grossing World War II movie?
Could it be done a totally different way?
Speaking of how tough it can be to sell movies about current conflicts, there’s news about the adaptation of Anand Giridharadas’ “The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas.” The book tells the story of a “patriotic” murder spree following 9/11, and its aftermath.
“The True American” is still set to star Tom Hardy, but it lost Oscarwinning director Kathryn Bigelow. Bigelow will apparently produce, but Chilean director Pablo Larraín (“No,” “Jackie”) will take the reins.
Bigelow is known for taut military-themed and action movies (“The Hurt Locker,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Point Break”). Larraín, who was once attached to the “Scarface” remake, is known for idiosyncratic art films.
His use of cinematic tools in “Neruda” was daring. He employed everything from fish-eye lenses and bold camera moves to heightened language and an imagined antagonist to tell a slice of Pablo Neruda’s life story in filmic language that approximated poetry. It was considered an upset that the film did not receive an Oscar nomination.
A new Matrix
There will be a new “Matrix” movie.
The film is billed by writer Zak Penn (“X-Men: The Last Stand”) as neither a reboot nor a remake. It’s apparently another story in the Matrixverse, an expansion a la “Star Wars: Rogue One.”
Hollywood Reporter writers who broke the story said that some at Warners “see a need to redevelop it in an environment where studios are desperately looking for ways to monetize their libraries and branded IP is hard to come by.”
Trivia answer
Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” (1998): $217 million domestic; $482 million worldwide.
Michael Ordoña is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer. Twitter: @michaelordona