Director Kathryn Bigelow wants her new movie, “A House of Dynamite,” to sound the alarm on the dangers of nuclear weapons. The tense political thriller, which premieres on Tuesday at Venice Film Festival and stars Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson, follows White House officials who scramble to deal with an incoming missile attack on the U.S.
“Hopefully the film is an invitation to decide what to do about all these weapons,” Bigelow said at Venice during the official press conference. “My answer would be to initiate a reduction in the nuclear stockpile. How is annihilating the world a good defensive measure?”
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Bigelow continued, “This is a global issue, where we are with nuclear weapons. Of course, hope against hope is that we reduce the nuclear stockpile one day. But in the meantime, we are really living in a house of dynamite.”
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In “A House of Dynamite,” Elba portrays the president as he’s making an unthinkable decision during dire circumstances while Ferguson plays a senior White House official who has to keep the government running amid the chaos. Elba described the filming process — the ultra-immersive approach is designed to take the audience into the situation room where such conversations would unfold — as “being in a documentary.”
“It was quite intense and realistic of what we understood to be the true situation of what could happen with this,” he said. “I am grateful that I’ve never been put in that situation and had to decide what to. I don’t have the courage to be involved in politics.”
Screenwriter Noah Oppenheim wants the story to reflect “the reality of our world since the dawn of nuclear age.” Although the threat of nuclear conflict has intensified in recent years, he adds that “precise geopolitical dynamics at any given time are not really the point” of the film.
“Now there are nine countries on earth that have nuclear arsenals that could end human civilization, several times over,” said Oppenheim, who began writing the film two years ago. “It’s miraculous, frankly, that something horrific hasn’t happened already. So many of these weapons are on a trigger system and, in countries like ours, one individual, the president of the sole authorities, authorizes their use.”
“A House of Dynamite” is Bigelow’s first film in eight years, since 2017’s historical crime drama “Detroit” starring John Boyega. She was last at Venice with 2008’s Iraq War thriller “The Hurt Locker,” which was embraced with a 10-minute standing ovation. With that film, in addition to winning the Academy Award for best picture, Bigelow became the first woman to win the best directing Oscar. Her other major credits include “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Point Break” and “Blue Steel.” At Tuesday afternoon’s press conference, Bigelow was greeted with rapturous applause, much to her delight.
“I wish I could start every day like this,” she cracked. “I should make more movies.”
