Having pushed to release Tenet during the pandemic (and watched it earn $363 million worldwide, successful for the time but still lower than his other work), Christopher Nolan is now preparing to make his next film, this time about American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and the development of the atomic bomb in World War II. But a bigger bombshell is that Nolan appears ready to eschew his usual relationship with Warner Bros. and is open to advances from other studios.
According to Deadline, it's early days for the project, but a script is out and about among film companies, with executives talking to Nolan and his representatives about potentially producing it. Though the director doesn't have a formal deal with Warners, the majority of his movies have been made there, so this signifies a potential change. Nolan was publicly unhappy about the company's decision to put its 2021 output on HBO Max as well as in cinemas, and this could be a sign that the close relationship between the director and the studio has cooled.
As for Oppenheimer, a film about the man among the ranks known as the "father of the atomic bomb" – and who suffered true guilt at having been part of the team that unleashed it upon the world – sounds like fertile ground for Nolan, who has explored World War II previously in Dunkirk. Deadline has heard that frequent Nolan collaborator Cillian Murphy could be involved, but it's too early for any official announcements.