Page 22 - The Hollywood Reporter (January 2020)
P. 22
VITAL STATS
STUDIO Universal
RELEASE DATE Dec. 25
BEST PICTURE not just its technical wizardry (thanks largely
WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE
to Roger Deakins’ cinematography and the
1917 stitchwork of editor Lee Smith), but also its $75.6M (through Jan. 16)
DIRECTOR Sam Mendes
immersive storytelling and sound.
CAST
Already a double Golden Globe winner (for
George MacKay,
best picture, drama, and for best director) Dean-Charles Chapman
and appearing on many critics’ top 10 lists,
TOP AWARDS
Sam Mendes’ ambitious 1917 has amassed nine BAFTA and 10 Oscar 10 Oscar noms, 9 BAFTA noms,
World War I epic follows two nominations. Among those preparing a trip 2 Globe wins
to the Dolby Theatre is Pippa Harris, Mendes’
British soldiers who venture longtime producing partner and his Neal
into enemy territory in a Street Productions co-founder. Speaking to started really talking about the war. But the
race against time — just like THR, Harris discusses how the production one that really stuck with Sam was this story
the film’s own dramatic complexities of 1917’s one-shot style made her of him having to run below the level of the
entry into the awards battle a “weather geek,” recalls meeting Taylor Swift mist and take a message into No Man’s Land.
at the Golden Globes (where she also stalked
In terms of the film, he first mentioned it to
BY ALEX RITMAN
the Succession team) and reveals which newly me around three or four years ago, just as a
anointed Oscar nominee reminds her of sort of kernel of an idea. His agent and I both
fter an eleventh-hour shimmy Kate Winslet. said, “Well, why don’t you have a go at writ-
into the awards race, Sam ing something?” He did a first draft, which
Mendes’ seemingly one-shot Sam Mendes has talked about how 1917 was really just an outline document, and it
World War I epic 1917 has enjoyed was inspired by stories that his grandfather, slightly ground to a halt. We chatted again
A a dramatic last-minute entrance a World War I veteran, told him. When did he about it, and I said, “Maybe you should work
of which even the director of two Bond titles start speaking to you about the film? with a writer, because otherwise it could be 1917: FRANÇOIS DUHAMEL/UNIVERSAL PICTURES (2). MENDES: BRYAN BEDDER/GETTY IMAGES FOR UNIVERSAL PICTURES.
would be proud. Following two young British PIPPA HARRIS The funny thing is, we’ve known one of the things that ends up in a file on your
soldiers (played by George MacKay and Dean- each other since we were kids, so I remember shelf.” And that’s where Krysty Wilson-Cairns
Charles Chapman) as they undertake a daring his grandfather, Alfred. He was a great bon came in. We’d both worked with her on Penny
mission across the trenches into No Man’s viveur and great raconteur. But it was only Dreadful, and Sam had developed two movie
Land, the Universal film has been hailed as a when Sam and his cousins were little kids scripts with her — which didn’t see the light
visually sumptuous masterpiece, lauded for and bothering him to tell them stories that he of day, but he loved working with her.
T H E H O L L Y W O O D R E P O R T E R 1 8 J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 0 A W A R D S 1
