Hollywood News

Christopher Nolan’s Next Film on Oppenheimer and the Atom Bomb to be Backed by Universal Pictures

Filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s next project, which will be based on J Robert Oppenheimer and his contributions to the making of the atom bomb, will be backed by Universal Pictures, according to a Deadline report.

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The untitled film will begin shooting in the first quarter of 2022, and will be produced by Nolan’s production banner Syncopy Inc along with Universal.

This will mark an end to the filmmaker’s long-term collaboration with Warner Bros that began with Nolan’s 2002 film Insomnia, and continued with The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, and Dunkirk, all the way up to his last outing Tenet.

While it is unclear why Nolan decided to jump houses, the director, whose films have excelled on the big screen, has earlier expressed his resentment towards streaming platforms and called out Warner Bros’ decision to simultaneously release its entire slate of 2021 films in theatres and on HBO Max.

It is notable that Warner Bros decided to stream Tenet on HBO Max a few days after its theatrical release owing to the Covid-19 pandemic that rendered cinemas across the world shut for several months. The film was also made available on DVDs and Blu-Ray.

In December 2020, Nolan slammed Warner Bros’ hybrid day-and-date release plan for its entire slate of 2021 films. Gal Gadot-starrer Wonder Woman 1984 had such a dual release in theatres and on HBO Max on December 25. Warner Bro’s 2021 slate includes other films such as Dune,  The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do ItIn The HeightsSpace Jam: A New LegacyThe Suicide SquadKing RichardCry Macho and Matrix 4.

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Nolan’s resentment lay in the fact that Warner Bros took the decision without consulting anyone. “There’s such controversy around it, because they didn’t tell anyone,” the filmmaker said in an interview with ET Online. “In 2021, they’ve got some of the top filmmakers in the world, they’ve got some of the biggest stars in the world who worked for years in some cases on these projects very close to their hearts that are meant to be big-screen experiences. And now they’re being used as a loss-leader for the streaming service – for the fledgling streaming service – without any consultation. They deserved to be consulted and spoken to about what was going to happen to their work.”

Nolan also called HBO Max, the OTT platform owned by Warner Bros, “the worst streaming service” in a statement to the The Hollywood Reporter.

Meanwhile, Universal Pictures has not yet released a statement about its upcoming collaboration with Nolan. However, the production house shared the Deadline article on Twitter.