Possibly the dream, British partnership right here. Colin Firth and Benedict Cumberbatch have both joined Sam Mendes’s latest film, the World War I epic-drama entitled ‘1917’.
Besides Cumberbatch and Firth, dozens of actors have been cast for the film which will begin filming next week starting on Monday for a Christmas release by Universal and Dreamworks.
Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, Richard Madden, George MacKay and Dean-Charles Cahapman have all been cast as well. The latter two will be playing two young British soldiers fighting at the height of World War One during just one day in 1917.
Interestingly Mendes, for whom ‘1917’ is his first film which wasn’t in the James Bond franchise since ‘Away We Go’ in 2009 starring John Krasinski.
Firth in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2012)
Universal had announced late last year that it had given a limited release date of Dec. 25 to “1917” and then go wide two weeks later on Jan. 10, 2020. Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners is producing “1917” through its DreamWorks Pictures brand.
Mendes is seeming to keep this as an authentic British tale of the war by not hiring any American actors, similarly to what Christopher Nolan achieved with ‘Dunkirk’, which went on to take eight Oscar nominations, winning three, and made $527M worldwide. Universal and Mendes will be hoping that this one follows in the same suit.
The Christmas Day release is also primetime Oscar season and should garner some attention with the big names of Cumberbatch and Firth, who won Best Actor nine years ago for ‘The King’s Speech’.
You will be able to see Firth next in the British classic-remake of ‘The Secret Garden’, which should be heading to our screens in the Winter. Meanwhile Cumberbatch has kept himself busy and will be starring in the upcoming ‘Avengers: Endgame’, ‘Ironbark’, a film I cannot wait for (if interested, click here) which will be released in late 2019 for a Oscar slot in the release schedule, and finally recently Cumberbatch has joined the production of ‘Now You See Me 3’ as the antagonist, which should hit our screens in 2020 as filming begins in the Summer.
UKFILMS 