‘Blitz’ trailer: Steve McQueen returns with World War II epic
Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen is back with “Blitz,” his first feature film since 2018’s “Widows” and one of the awards season’s most-anticipated titles. The first trailer for “Blitz” debuted on Thursday.
Set in 1940s London, “Blitz” “follows the epic journey of George (newcomer Elliott Heffernan), a 9-year-old boy in World War II London whose mother, Rita (Saoirse Ronan), sends him to safety in the English countryside,” reads the official synopsis provided by Apple Original Films. “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.”
“Blitz” is set to premiere at the London Film Festival on October 9 before it closes out the New York Film on October 10. It will then have a limited theatrical release on November 1 before Apple adds the title to Apple TV+ on November 22.
In addition to Ronan and Heffernan, the film features supporting performances from Harris Dickenson, Benjamin Clementine, Kathy Burke, Stephen Graham, Leigh Gill, Mica Ricketts, CJ Beckford, Alex Jennings, Joshua McGuire, Hayley Squires, Erin Kellyman, and Sally Messham.
Among the craftspeople who contributed to McQueen’s World War II tale are Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer, Oscar-winning costume designer Jacqueline Durran, and Oscar-winning production designer Adam Stockhausen. All three worked with McQueen previously: Zimmer and Stockhausen on “12 Years a Slave” and Durran on McQueen’s “Small Axe” anthology film series.
McQueen was inspired to write “Blitz” after finding a black-and-white photograph of a young Black boy during the London Blitz while doing research for “Small Axe.”
“I just wanted to know who he was … what was his story?” McQueen told Deadline in a recent interview. Of Heffernan, a first-time actor who receives an “introducing” credit in the film, McQueen said, “He was 8 when he auditioned. So he was a little boy, and he auditioned because he’d never done acting before. As soon as I saw him, I thought, ‘Oh, he is the truth!’ He wasn’t going to pretend to be a child. He was a child. So when you present him with things, he reacted accordingly, and that’s why the other actors had to go up the two or three notches to get on his level. Because for him, it was reality. It wasn’t pretend.”
Awards prognosticators have had “Blitz” earmarked for several nominations since it was rumored to release last year. So the film has high expectations coming with its release, with many predicting nominations for Best Picture and Best Director for McQueen. If those nominations come to fruition, it would be the first for the filmmaker since “12 Years a Slave,” which won Best Picture for McQueen as a producer. (He lost Best Director to Alfonso Cuaron for “Gravity”).