MANILA, Philippines – An impossible but true story, the new film from Robert Zemeckis, The Walk is a live-action, PG-rated entertainment for all audiences, ages eight to 80. A love letter to the World Trade Center, the film is a 3D and IMAX visual experience, unlike anything audiences have seen.
On Aug. 7, 1974 — the day before Richard Nixon announced he would be resigning from office — Philippe Petit, a French aerialist, surprised the city of New York with a high-wire walk between the towers of the almost-completed and partially-occupied World Trade Center. Passers-by without a moment to spare stopped in their tracks and looked up. They saw the impossible: A man dancing high in the sky, seemingly in thin air.
Now, 40 years later, Zemeckis — one of cinema’s most accomplished filmmakers at integrating technology in the service of emotional storytelling — is putting moviegoers in Petit’s shoes. The Walk, an epic, big-screen cinematic spectacle, gives moviegoers the chance to go where only one man has been or ever will be — 110 stories in the air, on a wire, walking between the towers of the World Trade Center.
“When I first heard this story, I thought, ‘My God, this is a movie that a) Should be made under any circumstance, and b) Should be absolutely presented in 3D,” explains Zemeckis. “When you watch a wire walker, you always have to watch by looking up at him. You never get the perspective of what’s it like to be on the wire. Our film will follow Petit’s story but will ultimately put you on the wire, walking with Philippe, and by presenting it in 3D, it is going to be spectacular and very emotional.”
“The Towers are very much present in the film as characters,” adds Zemeckis. “This is one glorious and human moment that happened. That’s something that’s important to remember.”
Throughout his legendary career, Zemeckis has made films that have most successfully used cutting edge technology in the service of storytelling. For Zemeckis, it’s all about the latter: Technology is a tool, like any other technique, that the filmmaker can use at his disposal.
(Now showing nationwide, The Walk is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.)