Christopher Nolan Would Love to Make a Horror Movie, if He Can Find a ‘Really Exceptional Idea’

Brian Welk
·3 min read
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All eyes are on what Christopher Nolan is going to do next…beyond probably winning his first Oscar.

The world is Nolan’s oyster after his 12th feature-length film “Oppenheimer” was nominated for 13 Academy Awards. “Oppenheimer” is the frontrunner for Best Picture and Nolan is for Best Director.

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You know what might make a great movie for lucky 13? A horror flick. Nolan is open to the idea. Asked at a British Film Institute panel discussion in London on February 15 if he would ever consider making a horror movie, Nolan said he loves playing with genre and would do so if he stumbled across a “really exceptional idea.”

“‘Oppenheimer‘ has elements of horror in it definitely, as I think is appropriate to the subject matter,” Nolan said (via Variety). “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. 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.”

Not one to tie himself down to one idea, Nolan also said it would be a “privilege” to direct a James Bond movie. Dang. Our money was on a mid-budget rom-com.

But a Nolan horror film, especially with the type of budget that Nolan’s movies typically command (“Oppenheimer” was made for $100 million), could blow up the box office. Horror movies without Christopher Nolan are among the most bankable genres Hollywood has to offer. Add Nolan to the mix — and perhaps even his lucky July weekend — and the sky is the limit. (Especially if it can be cross-marketed with “Barbie 2.”)

“I think it’s a very interesting genre from a cinematic point of view,” Nolan said of horror. “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. 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.”

OPPENHEIMER, written and directed by Christopher Nolan
“Oppenheimer”Melinda Sue Gordon

Nolan recently told IndieWire’s Anne Thompson about the experimental feel, genre-wise, of making “Oppenheimer.” Aware of how much straight dialogue could bog down the film, Nolan says he purposefully shot Act 2 like a heist movie and Act 3 as a courtroom drama.

“Those are two genres where audiences are not just willing to listen, but they enjoy that process,” he told IndieWire. “I early on settled on the first part of the movie being this origin story of almost a superhero. He’s somebody who’s unbelievably insightful and intelligent in the world of physics, and I chose to present that journey as him dealing with almost a superpower he can’t control or is afraid of, seeing energy in dull matter. He’s in a difficult place. Ken Branagh’s character of Niels Bohr comes in as a mentor figure to get him to see how this can be a powerful set of insights, how it can be his superpower. As an audience, we go on that journey for the first third of the film. As the Manhattan Project comes into focus, we switch full bore as Matt Damon’s character, General Groves, comes into the room. The film literally pivots to the heist that forms the large middle of the film.”

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