Having done his “The Dark Knight” trilogy, Christopher Nolan says he’s pretty much done with directing any more projects in the superhero genre.
The “Oppenheimer” filmmaker gave a recent interview to Hugo Decrypte where numerous topics were discussed and says he saw himself making movies for the next ten years with no plans to switch to making a television series.
Asked if he would direct another superhero movie, he said simply “No”. Asked if he would direct a “Star Wars” movie, he paused and then said “Pass”.
He also spoke ReelBlend where he was asked whether he had plans similar to Tarantino and would retire after a set number of films, or whether he’d just keep going (ala Ridley Scott, Martin Scorsese):
“The truth is, I understand both points of view. It’s addictive to tell stories in cinema. It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s very fun. It’s something you feel driven to do, and so it’s a little hard to imagine voluntarily stopping.
But I also see … Quentin’s point has always been that – and he never, very graciously, he’s never specific about the films he’s talking about or whatever – but he’s looking at some of the work done by filmmakers in later years and feeling that if it can’t live up to the heyday, it would be better if it didn’t exist. And I think that’s a very purest point of view. It’s the point of view of a cinephile who prizes film history.
[I’m not] sure that I would trust my own sense of the absolute value of a piece of work to know whether or not it should have been brought into existence.”
He also adds that he’s a ‘big fan’ of films that don’t “fully achieve what they try to”. Nolan also recently touched upon a comparison between A.I. and his new film and how it centers around the birth of new tech that could potentially be dangerous. Speaking at a post-screening of his new film in New York (via Variety, he says:
“The rise of companies in the last 15 years bandying words like algorithm – not knowing what they mean in any kind of meaningful, mathematical sense – these guys don’t know what an algorithm is. People in my business talking about it, they just don’t want to take responsibility for whatever that algorithm does.
Applied to AI, that’s a terrifying possibility. Terrifying. Not least because, AI systems will go into defensive infrastructure ultimately. They’ll be in charge of nuclear weapons. To say that that is a separate entity from the person wielding, programming, putting that AI to use, then we’re doomed. It has to be about accountability. We have to hold people accountable for what they do with the tools that they have.”
“Oppenheimer” opens in cinemas on July 21st.
