Having already recruited German composer and good-luck charm Hans Zimmer, Christopher Nolan is set to welcome back Swedish cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (Let the Right One In, Spectre) for World War II drama Dunkirk.
First collaborating for Interstellar in 2014, Nolan and Van Hoytema’s working relationship was almost born out of necessity, given that the director’s reliable director of photography Wally Pfister – who has served as DP on every Nolan film since his debut feature film Following – opted to forego the cerebral sci-fi film in favor of directing fellow genre piece, Transcendence.
But considering that Hoyte van Hoytema had by that stage attracted the attention of the Academy through his work on Her and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Nolan landed on a winner. Seemingly keen to keep the ball rolling, The Film Stage reports that the pair will collaborate once again for Dunkirk, swapping futuristic science fiction and wormholes for getting down and dirty in the trenches of World War II.
Citing a post on the American Society of Cinematographers, a short extract for van Hoytema states that he is “currently prepping an untitled feature for director Christopher Nolan, with whom he first collaborated on Interstellar.” Now, it goes by the name of Dunkirk, a big-screen rendition of Operation Dynamo when the Allies staged a monumental rescue effort during the throes of WWII to save thousands of friendly troops form the beaches of Northern France.
Boasting a similar scale to, say, Saving Private Ryan, Dunkirk is teeming with cinematic potential. Plus, with Zimmer and Hoyte van Hoytema now on board, all Christopher Nolan needs now to complete his collection of good-luck charms is Michael Caine. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for that one. Nolan’s latest opens on July 21, 2017.