We have news for you guys that not even IMDB has right now.
Passchendaele cast member Robert Nogier, who plays Mr. Harper in the movie, told us Sunday that the release date has now been set for October 17th. That date has jumped around a lot, moving from November 11th to October 10th, but now you have to believe it’s pretty firm.
Nogier plays the mean neighbor of David and Sarah Mann in the movie. The plot looks very intriguing as it tells the tale of 20,000 Canadian soldiers in World War I and the fact that 5,000 never returned from battle.
The name of the film comes from the Battle of Passchendaele that took place in 1917. According to the story of the battle on Wikipedia, the Canadian Corps took Passchendaele after Allied forces suffered over a half-million casualties.
Jason showed us the poster back in April, and the Canadian-born Nogier found our story and told us a bit about the film. He’s directed by Paul Gross, who was inspired to make the movie after hearing war stories from his grandfather. That man’s name was Michael Dunne and towards the end of his life, he was stricken with grief over something he did during the war.
“He went completely out of his mind at the end. He started telling me about a hideous event that happened during a skirmish in a little ruined town in World War I. He’d killed someone in a miserable, horrible way and that had obviously haunted him throughout the rest of his life. As my grandfather died, in his mind he was back in that town, trying to find a German boy whom he’d bayonetted in the forehead. He’d lived with that memory all his life - and he was of a time when people kept things to themselves. When he finally told the story, it really affected me and I’ve not been able to get it out of my head.” - Paul Gross, Now Magazine
After watching Band of Brothers this past summer, these war movies sort of jump out at me more than before. This story above is so sad, but how many countless other soldiers have dealt with the same thing after a horrific event during a battle?
Looking forward to checking this out. Being a independent film from Canada, I am worried about where it will be shown, even when it is actually released. It may prove difficult to even see this down in the States.
Thanks again to Robert for giving us the heads up on this!
I still love the poster. Very cool.