Christopher Nolan reveals his one condition for making a horror movie

The 30 Days of Night poster and Christopher NolanSony Pictures/Warner Bros.

A wild rumor has emerged: not only has Christopher Nolan cast Tom Holland in his next movie, but it’s supposed to be his first horror film. If it’s true, there’s a good reason to be excited.

Speculation about Christopher Nolan’s next movie has been rife since Oppenheimer’s Best Picture win. After all, it was a three-hour, part-black-and-white epic that made almost $1 billion, and it’s rightly recognized as one of the greatest movies of the 21st century so far.

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With Nolan comfortable at Universal, one has to imagine he’s effectively been given a blank cheque for whatever he wants to do next. He’s the name that puts butts in seats; build it, and they will come.

At the start of October, it was reported that Matt Damon had been cast in Nolan’s new project. This week, it was revealed that Tom Holland is now attached to lead it, and it could be a horror movie.

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Nolan floated the possibility of tackling the horror genre earlier this year. “I think horror films are very interesting because they depend on very cinematic devices, it really is about a visceral response to things and so, at some point, I’d love to make a horror film,” he told Variety.

However, he had one condition: “But I think a really good horror film requires a really exceptional idea. And those are few and far between. So I haven’t found a story that lends itself to that.”

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“But I think it’s a very interesting genre from a cinematic point of view. It’s also one of the few genres where the studios make a lot of these films, and they are films that have a lot of bleakness, a lot of abstraction,” he continued.

“They have a lot of the qualities that Hollywood is generally very resistant to putting in films, but that’s a genre where it’s allowable.”

According to Gizmodo, there’s a chance (albeit a small one) that Nolan’s new film is a vampire movie set in the 1920s.

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However, Deadline reporter Justin Kroll warned: “I would tread lightly on the Nolan plot detail rumors that are out there. I’ve heard them all and most have been denied so until the big guy says what this is, take everything with a grain of salt.”

In the meantime, find other new movies to watch this month and check out our list of the best horror movies ever made.