The PG-13 film about one of WWII’s fiercest battles is not expected to undergo any serious cuts.
Christopher Nolan’s World War II epic Dunkirk has been approved for cinemas in China, according to sources familiar with the matter, but a release date is yet to be announced.
An official Chinese version of the trailer was available online as early as March. The film is due to hit screens in North America on July 21.
Nolan’s epic war thriller about the evacuation of Allied troops from the French coastal city of Dunkirk before Nazi forces push them into the English Channel got an official MPAA rating of PG-13 in March.
That decision surprised many considering Operation Dynamo, the rescue mission that saved 338,226 soldiers from being stranded in Dunkirk, was one of the fiercest battles of the war.
But Nolan has since revealed that Dunkirk is “not a war film.” “All of my big blockbuster films have been PG-13. It’s a rating I feel comfortable working with totally,” Nolan told ABC News.
“Dunkirk is not a war film. It’s a survival story and first and foremost a suspense film.
“So while there is a high level of intensity to it, it does not necessarily concern itself with the bloody aspects of combat, which have been so well done in so many films.”
Dunkirk is set to be the fifth film by Christopher Nolan to bow in China, after Batman Begins, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, and Interstellar.
Dunkirk also stars Oscar-winner Mark Rylance and Kenneth Branagh, as well as Cillian Murphy and Tom Hardy, who also featured in Nolan’s Dark Knight films and Inception.
Despite its focus on the western theater of the war and with no particular Chinese angle or cast, the film could do well in China. World War II drama Hacksaw Ridge was a surprise hit in the second half of 2016, with its strong story and war themes familiar to and welcomed by audiences in China.
