The Dark Knight director struck gold again with his biographical epic Oppenheimer. But we’re curious about Christopher Nolan’s next movie, and if it’ll involve James Bond.
Nolan’s prowess has seen him become the modern-day household name director. His latest, starring Cillian Murphy as the titular “father of the atomic bomb” is a wartime-spanning, dazzling epic.
Our Oppenheimer review said it was “less biopic and more horror movie,” and a “towering achievement that’s up there with Nolan’s very best, and a film of both great importance and true humanity.”
It was one of the biggest new movies of 2023 and was a big winner at the 2024 Oscars. As for what’s up his sleeve, there are a few possibilities.
Christopher Nolan’s next movie hasn’t been revealed
Nolan’s wife and producer on all his movies, Emma Thomas, says they haven’t started discussing the next project yet.
But she teased this is a “very exciting” time for the pair as they have “limitless” opportunities.
Speaking in Empire Magazine, Thomas said, “I would say it’s very exciting. This is the moment where the possibilities are sort of limitless, we haven’t started thinking practicalities, or anything. Oppenheimer was so absurdly successful and we feel like we have an opportunity.”
While that doesn’t offer much in the way of what the next film will be, it does tell us that Nolan basically has carte blanche to do whatever he wants.
That figures, considering the financial and critical success of Oppenheimer, and the fact Nolan is inarguably the greatest living filmmaker today.
Predictions
A James Bond film, a Howard Hughes biopic, and The Prisoner are strong possibilities.
While we don’t have concrete details, we can look to Nolan’s past ideas and lost projects; more specifically, three unmade films and a dream gig.
James Bond
Let’s deal with the latter first: a Christopher Nolan James Bond movie. Bond 26 will be a “reinvention” of the character and franchise, according to producer Barbara Broccoli, and Nolan has long expressed interest in taking the reins of his own picture, not only if the opportunity arose, but if the series called for it.
“I deeply love the character, and I’m always excited to see what they do with it. Maybe one day that would work out. You’d have to be needed if you know what I mean. It has to need reinvention; it has to need you,” he told BBC Radio 4 in 2018.
The stars seemed to be aligning, too: rumors have indicated that Nolan’s been in talks to helm two Bond movies whenever the next era of the franchise begins.
However, unless he’s bluffing, Nolan seemed to quell any reports in a recent interview with AP. When asked if he’d be directing a Bond movie, he said, “No, sadly no. No truth to those rumors.”
Howard Hughes biopic
Following the release of Insomnia in 2002, Nolan began writing a biopic centered on Howard Hughes, the iconic business magnate. If he sounds familiar in celluloid, it’s because he was once portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, a movie that forced Nolan to abandon his own take on the figure.
His film would have starred Jim Carrey as Hughes in the final reclusive years of his life as his health issues and battles with OCD intensified. In an interview with The Daily Beast, Nolan spoke about his reaction to Scorsese’s movie going into production: “I was definitely like, ‘F*ck!’
“I think it’s the best script I’ve ever written, and I had a really wonderful experience writing it,” he said. “Yeah, it was a frustrating experience that the other movie got going. Will I revisit it? I’ve no idea.
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I really don’t think about what I’m going to do next until I’m completely finished, and for the next couple of weeks, I’m still all about Interstellar. I wouldn’t necessarily rule it out, but I wrote it a long time ago.”
The Keys to the Street
After his Howard Hughes biopic fell through, he was briefly attached to direct an adaptation of Ruth Rendell’s The Keys to the Street, following a woman’s investigation into several homeless people being impaled and killed in London’s Regent’s Park.
The project sat with Fox Searchlight and would have starred Gemma Arterton as Mary Jago, but Nolan ultimately decided to leave the film. “I think the script is very good,” he told a fan site.
“I don’t think it’s what I want to do next, I think another director will do that. It’s a really cool script but has a lot in common with the three films I’ve made, so it may not be the right film for me to do next.”
The Prisoner
This is the most interesting one. For those who don’t know, The Prisoner was a TV series first released in 1967, following a British intelligence who’s abducted and taken to a strange coastal village, and anyone who tries to escape is merely recaptured or killed.
It was remade in the form of a miniseries starring Jim Caviezel in 2009, but it was generally dismissed by critics.
The Prisoner’s mysterious, twisty story is clearly a big influence on Nolan, and he was once attached to bring Number Six to the big screen. “The Prisoner is something I’ve been interested in for quite a long time, and I think I’ve figured out the take on how we’d approach it,” he said in 2009, as per IGN.
“The relevance of it today. David and Janet Peoples are terrific, who you know wrote Blade Runner and Twelve Monkeys… all kinds of great movies. They’re working on the script right now. I wouldn’t want to speak for them. I’m very excited to see what they’ve come up with.”
Alas, producer Barry Mendel confirmed in 2009 that Nolan had dropped out, and with the exception of a brief mention of Ridley Scott taking it on, there have been few updates since.
During a recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast ahead of Oppenheimer, Nolan was asked if he’d consider going back to The Prisoner. While admitting he hadn’t “cracked it”, he said, “I wouldn’t wanna say anything about what I’m gonna do next… because the truth is I haven’t figured it out.”
Variety reported there were rumors this was next on Nolan’s dance card in 2024, but nothing is confirmed.
Nolan is open to any genre
In a November 2023 profile by Variety, Nolan didn’t tease any specific project but explained that he’s open to any sort of movie, be it an altogether new project, remake, or adaptation — as long it’s original to him.
“Ideas come from everywhere,” he said. “I’ve done a remake, I’ve made adaptations from comic books and novels, and I’ve written original screenplays. 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.”
“As I do interviews and the film’s coming out, I’m always asked, do you know what you’re doing next?” Nolan also told The New York Times. “And the answer is always the same. For me, I do one thing at a time and I put everything into it obsessively, and the film is not finished. Well, the way I like to put it is, the audience finishes the film.”
However, there’ll be another film because the director has no intention of retiring anytime soon.
If you want to know more about the incredible filmmaker, here’s our guide to how many Oscars Christopher Nolan has, where to watch every Christopher Nolan movie, and a breakdown of the true story behind Oppenheimer.
