Christopher Nolan might be getting near-universal acclaim for Dunkirk, the WWII epic which follows the British soldiers stranded on the beaches of France, but it could have been a very different movie – as the director originally wanted to make the film without a script.
While Dunkirk as we know it is a departure from traditionally dialogue-heavy movies, Chris first planned to take it a step further and reduce the need for a screenplay at all.
"I felt like I'd kind of mastered that form," Chris said in a conversation with his brother Jonathan, which has been published alongside the film's screenplay.
He continued: "I got to a point where I understood the scope and movement and the history of what I wanted the film to address, because it's very simple geography."
His extensive research made him think that Dunkirk could work without a script – an idea he tried to move forward with.
"I said, 'I don't want a script'," he expanded. "Because I just want to show it, it's almost like I want to just stage it. And film it."
However, the proposal was immediately rejected by his collaborators, wife Emma Thomas and Nathan Crawley.
"Emma looked at me like I was a bit crazy and was like, 'OK, that's not really gonna work'," he recalled.
We can't really imagine Dunkirk being any different to how it was eventually released – and the script, although relatively short for Chris, clearly did the trick, as it recently surpassed $130 million at the US box office, topping the chart for two weeks running, and it's already being tipped as an Oscar frontrunner for next year.
