A big screen bromance is underway.
Christopher Nolan's “Tenet” will hit Imax screens for a week later this month, ahead of the release of Denis Villeneuve's “Dune: Part Two,” Warner Bros. announced Thursday. The two filmmakers are big fans of each other and Nolan was keen to help Villeneuve record his upcoming event film.
The week-long re-release begins February 23rd and will coincide with the debut of Villeneuve's film on March 1st. Anyone who watches “Tenet” will be treated to exclusive footage from “Legendary’s Dune: Part Two.”
Tenet's return to theaters serves other purposes. The film, which premiered in September 2020, was the first Hollywood film to hit theaters as theaters reopened amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. However, it failed to achieve a full breakthrough as theaters remained closed and was never performed in New York and Los Angeles. He also failed to secure many Imax productions, Nolan's preferred format. In North America, the peak was $58.5 million.
Second, Warner Bros. film bosses Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy are eager to please Nolan in the hopes of luring him back into the Warner Bros. fold. Nolan, dissatisfied with the way the previous regime at Warners released its 2021 theatrical release slate daily on streaming platforms, chose to make his blockbuster film “Oppenheimer” for Universal.
Every studio in Hollywood is clamoring to work with Nolan, but the bond with Universal is strong considering Oppenheimer grossed nearly $1 billion at the global box office with 13 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director Oscar contenders.
“Given the way audiences have responded to our large-screen presentations of Oppenheimer, I am thrilled that Warner Bros. is giving audiences the opportunity to see Tenet the way it was meant to be seen: on the largest IMAX and Large format movie screens “It's an honor that our film is warming up the movie projectors for Denis' stunning Dune: Part Two,” Nolan said in a statement.
Villeneuve added: “As a viewer, I have always appreciated Chris's forward thinking when it comes to filming, especially in large formats.” As directors, we are completely in sync; On Dune we shot several sequences for Imax and I just loved it, so for Dune: Part Two we expanded it to 100 percent of the film. That’s why I’m just as excited to see Tenet again, but now in 70mm Imax, just as they filmed it, to fully appreciate his vision for this incredible film.”