One of the biggest relationships in moviemaking has officially come to an end. No, don’t worry – Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn are still well and truly together. But for years now, director Christopher Nolan has been teaming up with Warner Bros on some of the biggest blockbusters of the last decade or two – from theDark Knighttrilogy, to Inception, Interstellar, Tenet and more, Warner Bros was the home of all things Nolan. Not any more. Things notoriously turned sour when Warner announced its plan to move its entire 2021 cinema offering to a dual-release HBO Max strategy without previously consulting with filmmakers – when Nolan has long been a cinema-first guy. Now it’s official: the next Christopher Nolan movie is being made at Universal instead.
As reported by Deadline, Universal won out against MGM and Sony, who were also in the mix for this one – while Warner Bros weren’t among the top contenders. Nolan’s upcoming project is a film about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the development of the atom bomb, the creation of which helped mark the end of World War II. It will be Nolan’s third historical project following The Prestige and Dunkirk. The film now has the official green light at Universal, and will likely go into production in early 2022. Nolan’s long-time producer (and wife) Emma Thomas will be on board too, under the pair’s Syncopy Inc. banner.
So there you have it – Nolan and Warner Bros are heading their separate ways. Unless it’s all part of some elaborate temporal pincer movement, in which case somebody is going to have to come and explain Tenet to us once again. Any takers?