After months of lockdown, Hollywood hopes the director’s time-twisting thriller can lure audiences back to theaters.
The whole shebang is pretty much the most impressive Hollywood-financed flex you could hope to see.
“It’s colossal.”
Marc Hom for EW
“On this one there’s a little bit more…” Thomas pauses, then changes tack.
“All will become clear!”
(No pressure, Chris.)
Elizabeth Debicki.Marc Hom for EW
In short, the big question surroundingTenetis no longer “What is it about?”
but “Will people return to cinemas to see it?”
“We talked for three hours about nothing, really,” says the actor, 34.
John David Washington, left, and Robert Pattinson.Marc Hom for EW
“That’s quite unusual.
“We talked about our love for movies, family, my childhood.
Nolan says he first noticed Washington while watching him play NFL player Ricky Jerret onBallers(yes, likeSen.
“John David was the very charismatic lead in that great movie,” says Nolan.
“That felt like destiny at that point.”
Inversion is inspired by real-life physics and entropy, a measure of disorder and randomness in thermodynamic systems.
“This film is not a time-travel film,” says Nolan.
“Itdealswith time and the different ways in which time can function.
Hey, we thought you said this wasn’t going to be a physics lesson!
It’s less complicated when Nolan describes his principal characters, including Washington’s.
“[John David] is playing an operative who is known by the term ‘Protagonist.’
Tenet is the name of the organization into which the Protagonist gets inducted.”
Pattinson, meanwhile, plays someone named Neil possibly.
“We think he may be called Neil,” says Nolan with a laugh.
“You never really quite know what’s going on with these identities.”
“Her relationship with John David is ambiguous and complicated.”
“Aaron Taylor-Johnson is indeed in the film,” says Nolan.
“He’s an important part of the film.
Yes, there are no photographs of him, this is true.
He is briefly glimpsed in the [second] trailer.
He’s also completely unrecognizable.
“It’s funny, I did one day’s training for the stunt driving,” says Pattinson.
John David’s turning to me and saying, ‘Are you, like, a stunt driver or something?
Have you rehearsed this?’
Under normal circumstances you wouldn’t really be allowed to do this.
“We ended up with a tiny number of visual-effects shots,” says Thomas.
At the time, if you were in the U.K. or the U.S., coronaviruswasn’ta big deal.
The situation rapidly worsened, of course.
Composer Ludwig Goransson was about to start the orchestral sessions for the soundtrack when the country shut down.
Nolan claims that the pandemic has not really been a problem at all in terms of finishing the film.
While all was well with the film, the theaters where Nolan hoped to screenTenetwent dark.
WillTenetbe the film to fulfill that need post-lockdown?
Time thatmostlyirreversible force will tell.
“That’s the kind of film we’ve always tried to make, andTenetis no exception.”
To read more onTenet,order the July issue ofEntertainment Weeklynow.
