Brendan Fraser stars as Dwight D. Eisenhower in a blood-pumping new trailer for World War II drama Pressure, as his Hollywood comeback thunders ahead.
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After about a decade away from the spotlight, Fraser was welcomed back with a shower of acclaim and an Oscar for his turn in the 2022 drama The Whale.
His new movie centers on Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander, laying his plans for D-Day in the 72 hours leading up to the attack.
Eisenhower is shown racked with anxiety after the failure of Exercise Tiger, a rehearsal for the Normandy landings that ended in a bloodbath.
To prevent another catastrophe, he turns to Royal Air Force meteorologist James Stagg - played by Andrew Scott - to predict the weather conditions on D-Day.
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'This is the largest seaborne invasion in history. The fate of the war, thousands of lives hinge on this,' says Eisenhower, instructing Stagg: 'I need a forecast.'
Brendan Fraser stars as Dwight D. Eisenhower in a blood-pumping new trailer for World War II drama Pressure, as his Hollywood comeback thunders ahead
Fraser (left) plays Eisenhower (right) as Supreme Allied Commander, laying his plans for D-Day in the 72 hours leading up to the attack
Pressure features Homeland star Damien Lewis as Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and Kerry Condon as Eisenhower's wartime secretary Kay Summersby.
Chris Messina of The Mindy Project fame has been cast as American meteorologist Irving P. Krick, who also participated in the D-Day planning.
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Krick and Stagg clash with each other in the trailer, which shows the American sublimely confident of 'calm and sunny' conditions while his British opposite number warns the brass: 'We are faced with a succession of two aggressive storms.'
As tension mounts and the appointed hour approaches, Montgomery is seen issuing the proclamation: 'If D-Day is canceled, we will lose this war.'
Even a 'delay' would, in Montgomery's view, lead to a state of affairs in which 'the enemy will be ready and waiting. They'll slaughter every single last one of us.'
Eisenhower erupts at Stagg, wondering why he should 'trust' the scientist with the lives of '300,000 men with families that they may never see again.'
'We must face the facts - the facts, however frightening they may be!' Stagg insists. 'The storms that I am talking about are real, and the wrath of nature is real.'
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Pressure is the latest movie by Australian filmmaker Anthony Maras, who previously made the 2018 thriller Hotel Mumbai about a 2008 jihad attack in India, starring such names as Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, Jason Isaacs and Bollywood icon Anupam Kher.
To prevent another disaster after Exercise Tiger, Eisenhower turns to Royal Air Force meteorologist James Stagg - played by Andrew Scott - for a D-Day forecast
Pressure features Homeland star Damien Lewis as Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, who warns that a 'delay' in D-Day would enable the Nazis to be 'ready and waiting' for the Allies
Kerry Condon is pictured as Eisenhower's wartime secretary Kay Summersby in the film, which comes out in America on May 29, the Friday after Memorial Day
Maras co-wrote the screenplay of Pressure with English playwright David Haig, who penned the 2014 stage show on which the new picture is based.
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The movie will enjoy a theatrical release in America on May 29, the Friday after Memorial Day, and will then bow in the UK on September 11.
Pressure marks the latest step in Fraser's Hollywood renaissance, which began with The Whale, his first Hollywood project in nearly a decade.
Helmed by Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky, The Whale saw Fraser disappear into the role of a wheelchair-bound 600lb gay man.
He alleged years ago that his career 'withered on a vine' after he was groped in 2003 by Philip Berk, a former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), which is the organization behind the Golden Globes.
Pressure marks the latest step in Fraser's Hollywood renaissance, which began with The Whale, his first Hollywood project in nearly a decade
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After years in the doldrums professionally, Fraser found himself onstage at the Oscars in March 2023 accepting a trophy for best actor for The Whale
Fraser is pictured this past October at the Newport Beach Film Festival Honors and Variety's 10 Actors to Watch event in California
Berk, now 93 - who was ejected from the HFPA in 2020 after emailing members an article calling Black Lives Matter a 'racist hate group' - has disputed Fraser's account.
After years in the doldrums professionally, Fraser found himself onstage at the Oscars in March 2023 accepting a trophy for best actor for The Whale.
With tears streaming down his face, he said: 'I started in this business 30 years ago, and things - they didn't come easily to me, but there was a facility that I didn't...I didn't appreciate at the time until it stopped.'
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Since then, he has appeared in such movies as Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon and a culture clash comedy called Rental Family set in Japan.
The trailer for Pressure comes three months after news broke that he is making his grand return to the Mummy franchise for its upcoming fourth instalment.

