On Thursday, February 15 in London, Christopher Nolan talked to fans during a meeting organized by the British Film Institute. One of the guests at this sold-out event asked Nolan if he was considering making a horror film. The creator of “Oppenheimer” did not deny this.
“My “Oppenheimer” it definitely had horror elements. And I think it was appropriate, considering the topic at hand. I think horror films are very interesting because they rely on very cinematic means of expression. They’re about getting to the guts of things. At some point in my career, yes, I would love to direct a horror film. However, I believe that a truly good horror film requires a truly unique idea. And there are few of them. So I haven’t found a story that would be suitable for this yet,” replied Nolan, quoted by Variety.
“However, I think that from a cinematic point of view, horror is a very interesting genre. It is also one of the few genres that film studios are willing to use when creating many such productions. They have a lot of gloom and abstraction in them. So they have many features that Hollywood “I’m generally very reluctant to put things into films, but in this genre they’re acceptable,” Nolan continues.
The creator of such films as “The Dark Knight” and “Inception” praises genre cinema, not only horror films. “The middle of Oppenheimer is mainly the so-called heist movies (movies about robberies, thefts), and the third act is a courtroom drama. The reason why I used these two genres in these parts of the story is that they are genres in which the dialogues are intense and interesting for the audience. That’s the fun of genre cinema. You can use it in many different areas that would not be allowed in another type of film,” concludes Nolan.
Nolan’s films have accustomed us to huge budgets. “The Dark Knight Rises” cost $250 million, a “Tenet” 200 million. The costs of “Oppenheimer” amounted to “only” $100 million. This does not mean, however, that the director wasted money. In the case of his latest work, he shortened the shooting period from 85 to 57 days to allocate more funds for set design and searching for shooting locations.
Nolan is the favorite in this year’s Oscar race for directing. However, “Oppenheimer” may end up with the statuette for best film. The biography of the father of the atomic bomb received a total of 13 Oscar nominations. The awards will be presented on March 10, 2023.