‘Dunkirk’: Christopher Nolan Wanted to Shoot His World War II Drama Without a Script

If you’ve seen “Dunkirk,” then you already know that Christopher Nolan’s World War II thriller is light on dialogue. According to the film’s published screenplay, which includes a conversation between the director and his brother/usual screenwriting partner Jonathan, Nolan considered shooting the film without a script: “I said, ‘I don’t want a script. Because I just want to show it,’ it’s almost like I want to just stage it. And film it.”

“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,” he adds. His wife/fellow producer Emma Thomas wasn’t keen on the idea, however: “Emma looked at me like I was a bit crazy and was like, okay, that’s not really gonna work.” He then wrote the 76-page script on his own “very, very quickly,” an effort presumably made easier by the fact that most of Tom Hardy’s dialogue is unintelligible anyway.