Vanessa Kirby Thriller Package 'Off Season' From Script By Andrew Sodroski Snapped Up By Apple
Apple Original Films on Thursday unveiled the first trailer for Blitz, its WWII drama from Oscar- and BAFTA-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), in which four-time Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan stars opposite newcomer Elliott Heffernan.
Hitting select theaters November 1 and debuting globally on Apple TV+ November 22 after premiering as the opening film of the BFI London Film Festival, Blitz follows the epic journey of George (Heffernan), a nine-year-old boy in World War II London whose mother Rita (Ronan) sends him to safety in the English countryside. George, defiant and determined to return home to his mom and his grandfather Gerald (Paul Weller) in East London, embarks on an adventure, only to find himself in immense peril, while a distraught Rita searches for her missing son.
Teasing a score by Hans Zimmer that may well be an Oscar contender, the trailer sees George navigate dark tunnels and a flooded London Underground as the city around him is destroyed, with sirens going off, a burning plane crashing into a building, and machine gun fire lighting up the night sky.
Written and directed by McQueen, who's also known for films like Widows, Shame and Hunger, the pic is believed to have the potential to break out as one of the year's top awards contenders. Its cast also includes Harris Dickinson, Benjamin Clementine, Kathy Burke, Weller, Stephen Graham, Leigh Gill, Mica Ricketts, CJ Beckford, Alex Jennings, Joshua McGuire, Hayley Squires, Erin Kellyman and Sally Messham.
McQueen's Lammas Park produced alongside Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title Films, Arnon Milchan, Yariv Milchan and Michael Schaefer for New Regency, Anita Overland and Adam Somner. Anna Smith Tenser, Natalie Lehmann, Sheeraz Shah and Sarah-Jane Wright served as executive producers.
Most recently releasing the popular heist thriller The Instigators, starring Casey Affleck and Matt Damon, who we told you are in early talks for a sequel, Apple will next see their action comedy Wolfs, starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, hit theaters via Sony on September 20, after world premiering at Venice, making its streaming debut on September 27.