10 Facts About Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ You Probably Didn’t Know About
“The story in this movie is adapted from a Pulitzer Prize-winning book”
Christopher Nolan is one of the few directors who respect and have mastered the process of filmmaking. His visual signature could be seen in his first film ever ‘The Following’. More than anything else, Nolan loves grounded storytelling and always tries to make every single shot in the movie as real as possible. His intellectual mind that goes to making movies is not to be trifled with. His art and visual storytelling in all movies carry a similar theme and most of them correlate with the concept of time be it Tenet, Interstellar, or Inception. Thus, it would not be wrong to say that Nolan loves to unravel the mysteries of Science in his movies. In this day and age where the blockbuster market is crowded with corporate cookie-cutter movies with cheap jokes where the audience could just turn off their brain and laugh along with it, we need movies, like the ones from Nolan which really makes us sit there and think about ‘What did I just watch?’ And one of them is his upcoming movie, ‘Oppenheimer’.
- As always, this movie has little to no CGI. Nolan is a strong advocate of practical effects and respects his audience in high regard. Even though the CGI is fully perfect, there is always an underlying assertion that the shot we’re looking at is not real. It’s not the case with Nolan. For this movie, in an interview, he said,
“I think recreating the Trinity test (the first nuclear weapon detonation, in New Mexico) without the use of computer graphics was a huge challenge to take on.”
2. This will be his first movie outside of Warner Brothers, the parent company where he had worked for decades until the recent disagreement on releasing the movie Tenet both on streaming services and in theatres. Nolan was against this which made him leave the company and Oppenheimer was going to release under Universal Pictures.
3. As the title of the movie makes it obvious, it’s a biopic on one of the crucial characters in the field of Physics, J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the Atomic Bomb. This movie will focus primarily on bringing Oppenheimer’s theory into reality and the consequences he had to deal with it.
4. The movie is shot on IMAX. Any movie is particularly shot for two types of screens, the ones we usually watch on, and there are those IMAX screenings. Generally, the screen’s aspect ratio is wider than the normal screen. This is why you might have noticed a change in the aspect ratio of Nolan’s previous movies. It’s truly a visual spectacle to watch directors' visions come to reality.
5. The movie is filled with A-list actors such as Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., and Matt Damon. In an interview, Nolan exclaimed that Cillian Murphy is “one of the best actors of all time”. He is going to portray Oppenheimer in the movie.
6. The story in this movie is adapted from a Pulitzer Prize-winning book called ‘American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.’ In the realm of books, Pulitzer Prize is one of the greatest honors a book could receive because of its brilliance in writing. There is no doubt the movie will also follow in the same footsteps as it’s from one of the greatest living directors out there.
7. It is interesting to note that this movie will be released on the same day as the Barbie movie, which is from Warner Brothers where he used to work. The reason he decided to release the movie on the same day is a testament to his belief that directors should be given creative freedom to see their vision come to life. But the same release date, coincidence? I think not.
8. The production cost of this movie is wrapped around 100 million USD which is but a fraction of what major companies like Marvel and DC put up for their movies. This goes to show, big spectacles and money always don’t solve anything. The movie needs a vision that only a good visionary director could provide.
9. He has his wife as the producer. Whenever he has collaborated with his wife on movies, they turn out to be absolute hits. It is no doubt that this movie is going to turn some heads.
10. The company he is working for right now, Universal Pictures, they are not going to interfere with the vision of Nolan and once the movie is going to get released, it is said that they’re going to release it only in theatre focusing solely on this movie and nothing else for first six weeks of its release.
Contributed by Rishab Karki and curated by the author.
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