Posted in: Movies | Tagged: darkest hour, gary oldman, HRL, joe wright, lily james, oscar buzz, winston churchill, world war ii
New Poster And Trailer For Winston Churchill Biopic 'Darkest Hour', Starring Gary Oldman
A new trailer and poster has been released for period war drama Darkest Hour, which stars Gary Oldman as British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during the early days of World War II. It centers on Churchill's response to the aggression of Adolf Hitler and the German army.
In addition to Oldman, the film features Lily James, Ben Mendelsohn, Stephen Dillane, and Kristin Scott Thomas. The director is Joe Wright of Hanna, Atonement, Pride & Prejudice, and Anna Karenina fame. The screenplay comes courtesy of Anthony McCarten.
This one already has some award season buzz about it, as it has already made waves at some film festivals. People have really been praising Oldman's Churchill. To the credit of the makeup team, when I first saw the initial trailer for Darkest Hour, I had no idea that it was freaking Gary Oldman under all that makeup and fat-suiting. Oldman is a great actor, so I'd doubt that he would phone it in for a Oscar-attracting role like playing Winston Churchill.
This one was going to get Oscar nods no matter what — it's a World War II drama starring a very recognizable historical figure with large doses of patriotism mixed in for good measure. I mean, The King's Speech wasn't that good, and it got four Oscars.
I'm not going to gripe if this one turns out middling and still gets Oscars, though; it would be nice if the wider American public was reminded that Nazis are really, really bad and should be fought and condemned at every turn.
I get the feeling Mr. Churchill wouldn't have said there were "fine people" protesting at Charlottesville with their Swastikas and chants about Jewish people.
It's still weird that Darkest Hour shares a title with that alien horror movie from 2011 with the silly-looking energy aliens. Hopefully, Darkest Hour (2017) will be better than that.
In any case, we'll find out when it hits the US on November 22nd, and, oddly enough, the UK a month later in December. You can watch the new trailer below.