WORLD WAR I DRAMA 1917 WILL PLAY AS ONE CONTINUOUS SHOT:

This type of approach has been attempted before, notably Hitchcock’s Rope in 1948, which played out entirely in one room. The 2011 horror-thriller Silent House and 2014’s Birdman pushed the technique further, one moving in and around a woodland home and the other circulating through Manhattan’s theater district.

What differentiates 1917 is its epic scale, journeying across a vast and chaotic outdoor landscape while remaining intimately focused on its two central characters. Along this odyssey they encounter other characters played by Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Duburcq, Colin Firth, Richard Madden, Andrew Scott, and Mark Strong.

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Mendes will be at New York Comic Con on Thursday for a panel further showcasing how they pulled it off. 1917 opens in limited release on December 25 and expands wide on January 10.

Beyond the Christmas holiday timing, it’s likely not a coincidence that month was chosen, as that’s when Peter Jackson’s brilliant restoration of the Imperial War Museum’s WWI footage, They Shall Not Grow Old, played in American theaters last year. I’ll be really looking forward to reading the reviews of 1917, but the concept sounds awesome.