Steven Soderbergh Details Convincing Warner Bros. to Hire Christopher Nolan for ‘Insomnia’
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Steven Soderbergh isn’t losing sleep over Christopher Nolan’s career.
The “Command Z” director recalled reaching out to Warner Bros. for Nolan to be considered to direct 2002 thriller “Insomnia” starring Al Pacino, Hilary Swank, and Robin Williams. While Soderbergh seemingly downplayed his involvement in forging a two-decade relationship between Warner Bros. and Nolan during a recent Rolling Stone interview, the “Full Circle” helmer noted that Nolan would still be a major filmmaker today regardless of directing “Insomnia.”
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Soderbergh even called Nolan’s directorial debut “Memento” an “instant classic” upon first viewing it.
“What happened was, I got a call from Chris’ agent, Dan Aloni, who I had known because he screened ‘Memento’ for me after ‘Memento’ couldn’t find a distributor after being on the festival circuit for a year. Dan calls me up out of the blue and says, ‘Could you watch this movie? I have this client of mine who has this movie, and we think it’s really good, but nobody will pick it up and we don’t understand why. Maybe we’re all crazy,'” Soderbergh said. “I see the movie, and I think it’s a fucking instant classic, and I go, ‘Well, this is really depressing.’ I was really upset when I got out of there. It turns out that the financiers, Newmarket, opened their own distribution company and made $25 million on it.”
Soderbergh continued, “Cut to months later, Dan calls me and he goes, ‘Look, there’s this script over at Warner, “Insomnia.” Chris is really interested in it, but Warner won’t take the meeting.’ And I go, ‘What do you mean they won’t take the meeting?’ And he goes, ‘Well, the executive there didn’t like “Memento.”‘ And I said, ‘Well, so what? Why won’t they take the meeting?’ So, I called that executive and I said, ‘Take the meeting. You’ve got to take the meeting.’ And he goes, ‘But I didn’t like the movie.’ And I go, ‘Well, did you like the movie-making?’ And he goes, ‘Well, yeah, it’s brilliantly made.’ And I go, ‘Take the meeting.'”
After premiering at Sundance in 2000, “Memento” went on to gross nearly $40 million off a mid-seven-figure budget and received Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay (shared with Nolan’s brother Jonathan) and Best Film Editing for Dody Dorn.
The “Sex, Lies, and Videotape” auteur added, “That is all I did. I knew Chris well enough to know that if he gets in the room, he’s going to get that job. The executive came back and said, ‘I really love Chris.’ And I go, ‘Well, yeah.’ And he asked if [Soderbergh and George Clooney’s] Section Eight would come on as producers, and I said, ‘Sure.’ That was it. It started a very fruitful relationship [between Nolan and Warner Bros.], but let’s be clear: one way or another, Christopher Nolan is going to emerge. If he didn’t make ‘Insomnia,’ he’d have made something else and still had the career he has. That was just a fortunate set of circumstances where I could get on the phone and advocate for him.”
“Insomnia” kicked off Nolan’s 19-year partnership with Warner Bros. before he parted ways with the production company over the distribution of “Tenet” during the pandemic. Nolan’s latest film “Oppenheimer” is a Universal release; however, co-CEO of Warner Bros. Film Group Michael De Luca said the company is “hoping to get Nolan back.”
Soderbergh applauded Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” calling the film a “real accomplishment” that sums up Nolan’s career thus far. “Oppenheimer” is Nolan’s first rated R film since “Insomnia.”
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