Cunard Line hopes to use the Queen Mary 2’s role in the movie Let Them All Talk to raise brand awareness and ultimately drive bookings, said Simon Palethorpe, president.

“It will be good for the industry, good for Cunard, and definitely good for the Queen Mary 2,” he said, in an interview with Cruise Industry News. “One thing it does is reminds us of the joy of cruising.”

The film stars Meryl Streep on a trans-Atlantic crossing. The movie was filmed on a single crossing with a small crew working around-the-clock without impact to the regular cruise experience. Over 1,000 guests aboard signed up to be extras.

“I certainly hope that people will look at the crossing and think, ‘wow a voyage without any ports, this looks cool and fun,’ it’s the perfect antidote of the stresses and uncertainties of life during the pandemic,” Palethorpe said.

The brand has been busy keeping in touch with customers during its pause in service, according to Palethorpe, and the movie only helps build momentum for Cunard’s eventual restart.

“There’s a lot of pent-up demand,” he said. “Lots of people are keen to get back to cruising, it’s part of their life … its how they spend their vacations and people are missing it.”

Having launched summer 2022 sailings toward the end of 2020, early bookings were strong, Palethorpe explained, with guests booking with a level of confidence as the brand is not only back in Alaska, but has its traditional Queen Mary 2 summer trans-Atlantic crossing program of sailings.

“The crossing should be on everyone’s bucket list; we hope that many of these people that come and try it fall in love with cruising and sail with us some more.”

Next for Cunard is a new Queen and a fourth ship, tentatively set to launch in 2022.

“We’re dying to tell the world about it, but we’re not quite there yet,” Palethorpe said. “There is nothing guests write to me more about than the ship, and what it’s going to be called.”