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Throughout his decades-long career, Christopher Nolan has bounced between varoius genres like thrillers, space operas, and superhero crime dramas. He operates best in those spaces, and even Oppenheimer doesn’t feel that far removed from his bread and butter. But as it turns out, he’s a bit of a horror sicko and would like to make one at some point in his career.
Talking to the British Film Institute, Nolan mentioned his interest in the genre. While he didn’t name any of his favorites, he likes how they “depend on very cinematic devices. They’re really about a visceral response to things.” What further fascinates him about horror is how often they’re allowed to be bleak or abstract, two qualities Hollywood largely doesn’t care for in other types of films.
What’s stopping him at the moment is that he just doesn’t think he’s found the “exceptional idea” for it yet. But he’s done a little bit of it: Oppenheimer has a brief sequence of horror after the Manhattan Project’s first atomic bomb launch. That moment “[fit] the subject matter,” he explained, similar to how the film’s second and third acts essentially function as a respective heist movie and courtroom drama. He chose those two genres because they’re mainstream enough, and “people talking is inherently tense and interesting to an audience. That’s the fun thing with genre — you get to play with a lot of different areas whereas in different type of film you really wouldn’t be allowed to.”
Given his technical style and his dedication to practicality, it’d be interesting to see what a Nolan-made horror flick would look like. Hopefuly he finds the great concept worth making for it, and maybe afterwards he could try his hand at a comedy. We got Dev Patel out here directing action flicks, so why not see what happpens when other filmmakers choose to leave their comfort zone?
[via The Hollywood Reporter]