Joachim Rønning on the theatrics of the film

Young woman and the sea allowed Norwegian director Joachim Rønning to return to his roots in more ways than one.

While he directed Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019) for Disney, Rønning was developing a biopic about Olympic swimmer Gertrude “Trudy” Ederle, who became the first woman to swim the English Channel in 1926. What would normally seem like a big left turn for a filmmaker steeped in worlds fantastic. was actually a return to the historical drama genre that launched his career in Hollywood.

In 2013, the Norwegian film by Rønning and co-director Espen Sanderg, Kon Tiki, received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the 85th Academy Awards. The photo traces Thor Heyerdahl’s 1947 expedition from South America to the islands of Polynesia, as both Kon Tiki And Young woman and the sea Part of it is about achieving what was once considered impossible. They also took on the notoriously difficult challenge of filming virtually on the ocean, something Rønning was familiar with having grown up near the sea in Norway.

Once Young woman was finally completed and screened, audience test results exploded, setting a personal best for producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who has no shortage of crowd-pleasing hits such as Top Gun And Top Gun: Maverick. However, Young woman was originally intended to be an exclusive release for Disney+, so Bruckheimer got to work, refusing to let Rønning’s film go ahead without some form of theatrical release. Luckily, it’s now enjoying a limited theatrical release in conjunction with the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris, the same place where Ederle won gold a century ago.

“We held him against [Disney], and Jerry Bruckheimer is relentless. He really went for it,” says Rønning The Hollywood Reporter. “So it wasn’t that it was that difficult, but there are always algorithms, budgets and things like that. So I definitely respect the process, but then we [a limited theatrical release]. So I’m thrilled to be able to show an epic story like this on the big screen.

Between his history with Disney and Young womanThanks to the test results, Rønning was awarded with Tron: Aresthe rest of the 2010s Tron the legacy, which was led by another of Bruckheimer’s most trusted collaborators, Joseph Kosinski. Tron 3 He was only two weeks away from rolling cameras when industry-wide work stoppages derailed production, but Rønning remained optimistic about making the film for one simple reason.

“A lot of money had already been spent, so we were all pretty confident about getting back together, although I never take anything for granted in Hollywood,” Rønning said. “So there’s always a risk, but we have more time to prepare, and that’s never a bad thing.”

Below, during a…