Sumith Prasad
Christopher Nolan is one of the greatest and most acclaimed filmmakers of his generation but he doesn’t think that he will make a TV show in his career. While promoting his new film ‘Oppenheimer,’ a biopic that revolves around the life of the father of the atomic bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer, French YouTuber Hugo Travers AKA HugoDécrypte asked the director, “Could you make a TV show one day?” only for Nolan to reply, “No.”
Nolan has directed twelve feature films and served as a producer or an executive producer of a handful more but never worked in a television show. The filmmaker did make a few short films and has a few documentary appearances to his credit but TV seems a territory Nolan doesn’t have any intention to step into. His brother Jonathan Nolan, who co-wrote the filmmaker’s several renowned films such as ‘The Prestige,’ ‘The Dark Knight,’ ‘The Dark Knight Rises,’ and ‘Interstellar,’ is a famed television personality, known as the creator of ‘Person of Interest’ and the co-creator of ‘Westworld’ and ‘Fallout.’
In the past, Jorma Taccone, who co-created Peacock’s ‘MacGruber’ with Will Forte and John Solomon, had revealed that they tried to get Nolan on board to direct an episode of the action-comedy series but the filmmaker didn’t yield. “We were relentless in pursuing him, like, he sent us a super sweet note, he couldn’t come to the table read, but we invited him to the table read. I honestly have been too up his butt… I wanted to see if he could get his throat ripped out, he didn’t have any time for that. We offered him any episode that he wanted to direct [laughs]. I think he’s gotten to a point where he’s like, ‘I’m not gonna actually be a part of your world, but I do appreciate it,’” Taccone told Collider.
Nolan also seemingly doesn’t have the best relationship with TV. The director had previously raised his voice against the motion soothing feature in the television, which alter the way the film is presented to the home audience. However, Nolan is not against experiencing cinema outside of theatres. In the same interview given to Hugo, Nolan does make it clear that he thinks it is okay to watch movies on smartphones and laptops.
Even though Nolan wouldn’t make a TV show, don’t be surprised if he sets out to create a video game. In 2020, the director revealed that making a video game is “definitely something I’m interested in,” during a ‘Tenet‘ Q&A session. He also revealed that he even considered making a video game based on ‘Inception.’ However, there may not be any point waiting for a Nolan-created video game since the director is currently committed to making films. “My time and energy, I’ve just wound up devoting it all to film and just seeing how difficult that is, so making a video game on top of that; it’s not something you’d ever take on lightly,” the director said in the same session.
In addition to a TV show, Nolan is also not interested in directing another superhero movie after making the globally renowned ‘The Dark Knight’ trilogy. Nolan’s ‘Batman Begins,’ ‘The Dark Knight,’ and ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ are three of the most successful superhero films to ever come out. Irrespective of the success of the three films, Nolan seems to be interested in pursuing other subject matters as of now.
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