It’s common knowledge by now that Christopher Nolan is not like other guys. He doesn‘t have an e-mail address or carry a cell phone (he doesn’t let anyone on set bring their phones with them either), which is probably why he often works with the same group of actors — because they’re the only ones who have the homing pigeons that know the way back to Nolan’s fortress. A couple new Nolan quirks recently came to light after the release of Dunkirk, and boy, do they make being on this guy’s set sound like a whole lot of fun.
Dunkirk is a big movie for a lot of reasons: it’s Christopher Nolan’s first war epic, it’s told from multiple perspectives featuring all of America’s favorites from across the pond, and it’s the feature film debut of one of the biggest pop stars working today. Harry Styles being in Dunkirk no doubt influenced a lot of the buzz that swirled around this movie early on, and, hey, maybe it’ll get today’s teen girls into Nolan movies. But, apparently Nolan himself had no idea how famous Styles was before he cast him in the movie.
Stretching back as far as 1890, the British monarchy has made a habit of releasing a New Years Honors List every December 31, naming outstanding Britons who will receive new orders of chivalry or other official designation. (It’s a type of being knighted, but special in some key way that I don’t fully understand; Britain’s system of honors is awful confusing.) The list singles out British-born figures who have made outstanding contributions to the nation’s “society, business, or culture.” That particular definition comes from Deadline, who noted earlier today that some familiar faces from the cinema of 2016 will soon join the esteemed ranks of the hono(u)red British: actors Mark Rylance and Naomie Harris will be among the class of 2016 inductees, adding a few letters (but what important letters they are) to their names.
Ready Player One, Ernest Cline’s virtual reality dystopia, is getting the film adaptation treatment from Steven Spielberg, and he’s currently shooting it in London. The book takes place in the near future of 2044, and tells of an energy crisis that has forced most people to turn to OASIS, a VR game complete with chunky goggles, as a form of escape from their harsh reality.
Ready Player One was always meant to be a movie. With a plot that centers on millenial nostalgia for early ’90s video games, movies, and television shows, and a thoroughly likable group of characters, Ready Player One has been on many science-fiction fans’ most anticipated movie list since the movie rights were optioned. And on Friday, screenwriter Zak Penn posted on Twitter that production on the Steven Spielberg-led film adaptation had finally begun.
The BFG — or “Big Friendly Giant” — spends his days in Giant Country, collecting dreams from a magical tree and distributing them to the people of the world. He seems like just the sort of character who would appeal to Steven Spielberg, a big friendly giant of the film world whose work has stimulated the imaginations of millions of moviegoers. But Spielberg doesn’t fully communicate that appeal with his film version of The BFG, which contains a fair amount of lovely images but may be the director’s most listless and dramatically inert movie in decades.
Sorry, Tom Hanks — Steven Spielberg has a new favorite now, and his name is Mark Rylance. After delivering an Oscar-winning performance in Bridge of Spies, the actor re-teamed with Spielberg for The BFG, an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s novel. A new featurette puts the focus on Rylance and his role as the eponymous Big Friendly Giant, who forms a bond with a special little girl and takes her deep into the heart of Giant Country to see where dreams are made.
Following its premiere at Cannes (where reactions were decidedly…mixed), Disney has unveiled a new trailer for The BFG, Steven Spielberg’s fantastical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s beloved children’s book. Starring Spielberg’s new BFF Mark Rylance in the titular role, The BFG takes us to an enchanting but dangerous world filled with bone-crunching, gizzard-gulping giants. But don’t worry, the BFG of The BFG is a nice giant. Promise!