Christopher Nolan isn’t exactly shutting down James Bond rumours, as he considers how to follow up Oppenheimer.
There’s an interesting line in Variety’s excellent profile piece of Christopher Nolan, where the director reflects that if he talks about, say, Matt Reeves’ The Batman movie, that’s all the conversation off the back of the article will be about. He’s likely right too, and it’s worth outlining first and foremost that the piece, extensively talking through Oppenheimer, is well worth a read. You can find it here.
There are one or two lines in here too, though, that relate to what Nolan is doing next, that are worth nattering about, not least given all the speculation about him taking on a James Bond film next. There’s no sign that he will, to be clear, but that’s not stopped people talking about it.
Nolan’s not asked that directly in the piece, but Variety do quiz him as to his future plans, and whether it always needs to be something original. His answer says everything or nothing (again, not a Bond reference), but is careful not to shut doors.
“I’ve done a remake, I’ve made adaptations from comic books and novels, and I’ve written original screenplays,” Nolan points out.
“I’m open to anything. But as a writer and director, whatever I do, I have to feel like I own it completely. I have to make it original to me: The initial seed of an idea may come from elsewhere, but it has to go through my fingers on a keyboard and come out through my eyes alone.”
It’s also not clear which studio Nolan will jump to next.
After 20 years making films for Warner Bros, he left the studio, objecting to its policy in 2021 to put all of its theatrical releases on its HBO Max streaming service from day one. He subsequently went and made Oppenheimer with Universal instead, and given the roaring success of the film, demand for Nolan’s services is likely to be intense.
Yet it looks like the Warner Bros rift is resolved, with Nolan describing it as “water under the bridge.” Furthermore, he has nice things to say about the current management of Warner Bros, so it looks like the door may be open.
Nolan is keeping a fairly regular pattern of three years between his films at the moment, and Oppenheimer looks like it’s got a healthy Oscar run ahead of it. Might be a while until we find out just what movie he’s plumped for. And where he’s going to make it…
