In what should come as a surprise to no one who has followed the marketing campaigns for Christopher Nolan’s films, our next look at the filmmaker’s top-secret Tenet is set to be with us very soon. Following a tradition established with The Dark Knight back in 2007 to highlight its first-time fiction feature use of IMAX cameras, an extended prologue sequence for the film has been rated tonight by the MPA.

The runtime of the piece is still, as of yet, unknown – TDK and The Dark Knight Rises pieces were the opening 10 or so minutes of the film, while the Dunkirk one was a ‘short film version’ of parts of the film’s first act. You can read more about Nolan’s prologues in a retrospective piece we did last year.

It is almost a certainty that this will be attached to IMAX screenings of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in just over three weeks time, akin to Dunkirk’s prologue with spin-off Rogue One back in 2016, though hopefully this time, at all IMAX locations – we suspect a list, if it’s not all locations and showings, to be released closer to the time. And alongside this, we expect a brand-new trailer for the film itself – surely releasing online this time – to debut in time for the release of J.J. Abrams’ epic saga conclusion, to play with non-IMAX screenings of the film.

As always, we’ll be sure to have more info on everything Tenet here as it comes in.

An action epic evolving from the world of international espionage.

Starring John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Clémence Poésy, with Michael Caine and Kenneth Branagh, the film is released July 17 in the U.S. and the UK.

Following a tradition established with The Dark Knight back in 2007 to highlight its first-time fiction feature use of IMAX cameras,

“So, what can I not tell you about my movie?”

That’s writer-director Christopher Nolan warming up to talk publicly for the very first time about his up-to-now supersecret new film Tenet. The movie, out July 17, stars John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Kenneth Branagh, and has been officially, if somewhat unrevealingly, described as “an action epic evolving from the world of international espionage.”

“We’re jumping off from the point of view of an espionage film, but we’re going to a number of different places,” explains the director of the blockbusters Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk, and the Christian Bale-starring Batman trilogy. “We’re crossing a few different genres in a hopefully exciting and fresh way. [Producer] Emma [Thomas] and I have put together a lot of large-scale productions, but this is certainly the biggest in terms of international reach. We shot in seven countries, all over the place, with a massive cast and huge set pieces. There’s no question, it’s the most ambitious film we’ve made.”

The director also reveals that Washington is “very much the hero” of Tenet. “He’s a massively talented actor and physically gifted,” Nolan says of the BlacKkKlansman star, who is a former professional football player. “He’s an athlete and pretty hard for anybody to keep up with, including the different vehicles we shot him from — cars and helicopters. [Laughs] This guy moves.”

Speaking of vehicles, Washington recalls the difficulty of looking at ease while shooting a boat-set sequence with Debicki. “I was terrified, but when Christopher Nolan yelled ‘Action!’ I had to throw all that away and make it look cool,” says the actor. Why was he terrified? “Because it’s a boat, man!” Washington adds with a laugh. “I don’t know how to drive a boat! But I had to act like I did.”