Christopher Nolan's upcoming film Dunkirk has received an exclusive IMAX poster showcasing the sheer intensity of the iconic battle. Nolan has made a wide variety of films throughout his career, though this marks the first time he has delved into a war story. However, Nolan considers Dunkirk to be something more akin to a survival film than a war movie. Moreover, the movie also signifies the first time that he's made a movie based on a true story.
For those that don't know, the Battle of Dunkirk was the evacuation of approximately 400,000 British and Allied forces -- who were surrounded by hundreds of thousands of Nazis -- from the beaches of Dunkirk, France during World War II, from late May to early June 1940. Nolan attempts to bring that story to life on the big screen, featuring the likes of Cillian Murphy, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Fionn Whitehead, James D'Arcy, and more.
To provide audiences with the most visceral experience possible -- to really put them into the center of the action (or, non-action) -- Nolan has employed the use of IMAX film cameras as he's done in every one of his films since 2008. Today, IMAX has released an exclusive new poster for Dunkirk (below) ahead of the film's release next month, showcasing several soldiers and sailors swimming for Dawcett's (Rylance) boat, the "Moonstone." Based on the movie's trailers, we can presume that one of those soldiers is portrayed by Murphy.
Nolan has been recognized as one of IMAX's pioneers. His film, The Dark Knight, was the first feature film ever to shoot select scenes using IMAX cameras, despite several major productions having previously released on IMAX screens, such as Spider-Man, The Matrix, and Harry Potter. Ever since then, Nolan has maintained a healthy relationship with the company, filming every one of his movies in the large-screen format. Dunkirk is the latest Nolan film to do so, and that's evident by the above poster.
Although Nolan's earlier movies only featured select portions in IMAX, this time, the director has filmed a large portion of the movie using the company's 15perf 65m film cameras, which are being hailed as "the highest-resolution cameras in the world." Additionally, Nolan and the film's director of photography, Hoyte Van Hoytema, incorporated lots of hand-held IMAX camera work, something they first did with Interstellar. By doing so -- and by using the aforementioned cameras -- moviegoers who see Dunkirk on an IMAX screen will be able to see up to 40 percent more of the image than they would on a normal screen.
Source: IMAX
