Backstage: Love scenes, bald heads, ‘ Dunkirk’
Hollywood dished out a taste of its most promising fare last week at CinemaCon, the just- ended annual convention of theater owners. USA TODAY’s Bryan Alexander caught up with some of the biggest names between the sessions.
WHY CHARLIZE THERON’S LOVE SCENE WITH SOFIA BOUTELLA MATTERS
In Theron’s action- spy trailer for
Atomic Blonde ( in theaters July 28), she kicks, she kills, she nails a guy in the neck with a high heel. And she has the hottest love scene ever with a French spy played by Star Trek
Beyond’s Boutella. “It’s not something we see enough of in cinema, these kinds of relationships or exploration,” Theron told USA TODAY. “It’s very real. And we’re so scared of it. And it’s beautiful in the film. It’s very sexy.”
“It’s very technical,” Boutella adds. “It’s not as glamorous as you think. You want it all to translate.”
They translated it. Director David Leitch was beyond pleased with the final results. “We’re saying it’s an 11,” he says.
CHRIS PINE’S BALD LOOK IS SELF- INFLICTED
Pine showed off his surprising new bald head. His story is the best hair tale you’ll hear. “Yes, I did it myself; I used clippers,” Pine said before taking the stage to promote Wonder Woman ( due in theaters June 2). Pine was home ill with long hair and a full beard when he decided to start cutting out of boredom. It was an elaborate process.
“First, I did a facial hair thing. That was fun. I did the mustache. I did a little General Sherman,” Pine says of the Civil War general with a distinctive receding hairline and beard. “Then I did a full- shaved back ( of the head). That was fun for a day.” But the work went on. “Then I got a fade. Then I started doing designs. And then I got real bored,” Pine says. “I went full chop.”
The look suits the genetically blessed Pine well. But will he keep it?
“It’s a little intense,” he says. “But it’s easy. And it’s cool, meaning cool like in a breeze.”
Pine says people already are mixing him up with other bald celebrities: “Someone thought I was Jason Statham.”
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN’S ‘ DUNKIRK’ FOOTAGE EXPLODES
Nolan showed off stunning portions of his epic war drama Dunkirk ( July 21), which tells of the massive water evacuation of British and Allied troops pinned down by the German army in a seemingly hopeless-World War II battle. Nolan called the Battle of Dunkirk “one of the greatest stories in human history.”
Dunkirk’s cast includes Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy and newcomer Fionn Whitehead, who plays a young soldier.
“British people grow up with this story. It’s part of our DNA,” Nolan says.
He has wanted to make the film for years but needed the experience to do it right, shooting the action on IMAX cameras. “I didn’t think I was ready to make this film until I had done a lot of large- scale action films.”
The footage brings the viewers directly into the battle. “I want to put people on that beach or in the cockpit or in the boat, to experience it with the people at that time in that situation,” Nolan says.