Christopher Nolan

At 54 years old, Christopher Nolan has this physical status:

Christopher Edward Nolan, born 30 July 1970, is a British-American film director, screenwriter, and producer who is known for making personal, unique films within the Hollywood mainstream.

His films have grossed over US$4.7 billion worldwide and have received a total of 34 Oscar nominations and ten awards. Nolan, who was born and raised in London, developed an interest in filmmaking from a young age.

Following his debut with Following (1998), he made his literary debut at University College London.

Nolan's second feature, Memento (2000), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, received international recognition.

He moved from independent to studio filmmaking with Insomnia (2002) and Inception (2010), which received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.

These were followed by Interstellar (2014) and Dunkirk (2017), which earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Director.

Nolan has co-written several of his films with his brother Jonathan and co-written Syncopy Inc.

Emma Thomas, his wife, and his partner Steve Thomas. Nolan's films are usually grounded in epistemological and metaphysical themes, investigating human morality, time construction, and the malleable nature of memory and personal identity.

Uncommon narratives, cross-cutting, scientific special effects, experimental soundscapes, large-format film photography, materialistic interpretations, and analogous relationships between visual language and narrative elements are permeating his work.

Nolan has been honoured and commended throughout his career.

In 2015, Time magazine named Nolan as one of the world's most influential people, and in 2019, he was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his contributions to film.

In addition to his filmmaking, he is also a promoter of film preservation and the analogous medium.

Early life

Nolan was born in Westminster, London, and grew up in Highgate. Brendan James Nolan, his father, was a British advertising executive who worked as a creative director. Christina (née Jensen), an American flight attendant who would later work as an English tutor, was his mother. Nolan's childhood was split between London and Evanston, Illinois, and he has both British and US citizenship. Matthew, his elder brother, and Jonathan, his younger brother, who is also a filmmaker, are among his many siblings. Nolan's growing up, was heavily influenced by Ridley Scott's work and the science fiction films 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Star Wars (1977). He began filmmaking at the age of seven, borrowing his father's Super 8 camera and shooting short films with his action figures. These films featured a stop motion animation homage to Star Wars called Space Wars. Jonathan was cast as Jonathan and created sets from "clay, flour, egg boxes, and toilet rolls." "I re-filmed them off the screen and cut them in, hoping no one would notice," Nolan later wrote. He aspired to be a professional filmmaker from the age of 11. Nolan attended Barrow Hills, a Catholic prep school in Weybridge, Surrey, operated by Josephite priests, from 1981 to 1983. Nolan began filmmaking with Adrien and Roko Belic in his teenage years. The stunning 8 mm Tarantella (1989), directed by Nolan and Roko, was shown on Image Union, an independent film and video showcase on the Public Broadcasting Service.

Nolan was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College, an independent school in Hertford Heath, Hertfordshire, and later read English literature at University College London (UCL). "A degree in something unrelated" was pursued, opting out of a traditional film education, "because it gives a different perspective." He selected UCL specifically for its filmmaking services, which consisted of a Steenbeck editing suite and 16 mm film cameras. Nolan was president of the Union Film Society, and with Emma Thomas (his girlfriend and future spouse) he screened 35 mm feature films during the school year and used the funds earned to produce 16 mm films over the summers.

Personal life

Nolan is married to Emma Thomas, who was 19 years old when he first arrived at University College London. She has appeared in all of his films and founded Syncopy Inc. together, and she and her husband Joseph Smith formed the production company Syncopy Inc. The couple have four children and live in Los Angeles, California. In interviews, he rarely speaks about his personal life. However, he has publicly expressed some of his socioeconomic and environmental questions, including the current state of nuclear weapons and environmental problems, which he believes must be addressed. He has expressed admiration for scientific objectivity, but wished it were used "in every facet of our civilisation." In 2012, Nolan made a donation to Barack Obama's presidential campaign, and he serves on the Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF) Board of Governors.

Nolan prefers not to use a cell phone or an email address, saying, "I'm not a Luddite and don't like electronics; I've never been curious." No one had cell phones when I first arrived in Los Angeles in 1997, and I'm not sure if I'd go down that route." In a People interview in December 2020, Nolan said he does not have an email or a smartphone, but he does have a "little flip phone" that he carries with him on occasion.

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Career

Nolan began working as a script reader, camera operator, and producer of corporate videos and industrial films after receiving his bachelor's degree in English literature in 1993. He began working on Larceny, a short film shot in black and white with no cameras and a small cast and crew, in 1995. It was funded by Nolan and shot with the UCLU Film society's cameras at the Cambridge Film Festival in 1996 and is regarded as one of UCL's finest shorts. He made a third short film, Doodlebug (1997), about a man who seems to be chasing an insect with his shoe only to discover that it is actually a miniature of himself. With a scheme named Larry Mahoney, Nolan and Thomas attempted to make a feature of the mid-90s that was cancelled and never released. Nolan had little or no success getting his ideas off the ground; he later remembered the "stack of rejection letters" that greeted his early days in filmmaking, adding, "There is a very small pool of funds in the United Kingdom." To be honest, it's a bit clubby.... Never had any help whatsoever from the British film industry.

Following, Nolan's first film, which he wrote, directed, photographed, and edited in 1998, he made it in 1998. It depicts an unemployed young writer (Jeremy Theobald) who follows strangers through London in the hopes of supplying material for his first book, but it is thrown into a criminal underworld if he doesn't keep his distance. From Nolan's experience with living in London and being burgled, he discovered that the common characteristic of larceny and stalking someone through a crowd was that they "both take you beyond the boundaries of normal social relations." It was co-produced by Nolan with Thomas and Theobald and was made on a budget of £3,000. The majority of the cast and crew were friends of the producer, and the shooting took place on weekends throughout the year. Every scene was rehearsed extensively to ensure that the first or second take was used in the final edit to save film footage. Following numerous accolades during its festival run and was well-received by critics, the New Yorker wrote that it "resembled Hitchcock classics" but that it was "leaner and meaner." "The actors convincingly carry off the before, during, and after modes that the film eventually, and artfully weaves together," Janet Maslin of The New York Times was impressed with its "spare glance" and flexible hand-held camerawork. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray as part of The Criterion Collection on December 11, 2012.

Following Nolan's success, he had the opportunity to make Memento (2000), his first film. Jonathan's brother Jonathan suggested that a man with anterograde amnesia who uses notes and tattoos to look for his wife's murderer. Jonathan turned the concept into a short story called "Memento Mori" (2001), while Nolan turned it into a screenplay that told the tale in reverse. Aaron Ryder, a director for Newmarket Films, said it was "perhaps the most original script I'd ever seen." Guy Pearce and Carrie-Anne Moss appeared in the leading roles and the film was optioned and budgeted for $4.5 million. Memento made its debut at the Venice International Film Festival in September 2000, receiving critical acclaim. In his review, Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal wrote, "I can't remember when a film has been so clever, mysteriously touching, and sly funny at the same time." Basil Smith of The Philosophy of Neo-Noir compares John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, which claims that conscious memories constitute our identities, which Nolan explores in the film. The film received several accolades, including Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for its screenplay, Independent Spirit Awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay, and a Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award nomination. Several commentators have rated Mooney as one of the best films of the 2000s. The film was chosen by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 2017, and was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in 2017.

Steven Soderbergh was hired by Nolan to direct the psychological thriller Insomnia (2002), which starred Academy Award winners Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank. Warner Bros. initially wanted a more experienced film director, but Soderbergh and his Section Eight Productions fought for Nolan, as well as his choice of cinematographer (Wally Pfister) and editor (Dody Dorn). It was described as "a much more conventional Hollywood film than anything [Nolan had] done before] with a $46 million budget. Insomnia, a remake of the 1997 Norwegian film of the same name, is about two Los Angeles detectives who were sent to a northern Alaskan town to look at the assassination of a local teen. The box office performed well, earning $113 million worldwide, with positive feedback from critics and a strong show. Roger Ebert, a film critic, praised the film for giving new perspectives and perspectives on the topic of morality and guilt, saying that "the Nolan Insomnia is not a pale retread, but a re-examination of the original script, as in a new performance of a good play." Insomnia, according to Richard Schickel of Time, is a "worthy successor" to Memento, as well as a "thorough triumph of atmosphere over a never-too-mysterious mystery."

Nolan produced a Howard Hughes biographical film starring Jim Cary after Insomnia. He wrote a screenplay, which he described as "the best script I've ever written," but when Martin Scorsese learned he was making a Hughes biopic (2004's The Aviator), he reacted angrily to other ventures. Nolan, who turned down a bid to direct Troy's historical epic in 2004, converted Ruth Rendell's crime novel The Keys to the Street into a film directed for Fox Searchlight Pictures, but he eventually dropped the project, citing the similarities to his previous films. Nolan was also directing a film version of The Prisoner, but it was later cancelled out of the project.

Nolan approached Warner Bros. in early 2003 with the proposal of a new Batman film based on the character's origin story. Nolan was fascinated by the prospect of grounding it in a world more reminiscent of classical drama than comic-book fantasies. During filming, he heavily relied on traditional stunts and miniature effects, with little use of computer-generated imagery. Batman Begins, the most significant Nolan project to that date, premiered in June 2005 to critical acclaim and commercial success. The film starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and Liam Neeson revived the franchise, heralding a trend toward darker films that retold (or retold) backstories. Kyle Smith of the New York Post called it "a wake-up call to the people who continue to give us cute capers about men in tights." It takes the smirk off the face of the superhero film. Batman Begins was the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2005 in the United States, as well as the year's ninth-highest-grossing film worldwide. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, and it has been dubbed one of the most influential films of the 2000s.

Nolan wrote, co-wrote, and produced The Prestige (2006), a Christopher Priest story about two rival 19th-century magicians before returning to the Batman franchise for a sequel. The screenplay was the result of an ongoing, five-year collaboration between him and his brother Jonathan, who had begun writing it earlier in 2001. Nolan had intended to make the film as early as 2003, but had to cancel after agreeing to make Batman Begins. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale in lead roles in The Prestige received critical acclaim and over $109 million worldwide. Roger Ebert called it "quite a film – atmospheric, obsessive, almost satanic," and Los Angeles Times writer Kenneth Turan called it a "ambitious, enthralling melodrama." "In addition to the intellectual or philosophical apprehensions it generates, The Prestige is enthralling, suspenseful, revealing, and often grim." Philip French wrote in The Guardian's review: "In comparison to the intellectual or philosophical joy it incites, The Prestige is arresting, suspendens, mysterious, touching, and often grim." Academy Award winners for Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction also received awards from Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction.

Nolan revealed in 2006 that the Dark Knight, the Batman Begins sequel, would be called The Dark Knight. Nolan wanted to expand on the noirish quality of the first film by broadening the scene and including "the poor people, the wealthy people, the criminals" in a series. The Dark Knight, which was released in July 2008, has been dubbed one of the best films of the 2000s and one of the finest superhero films ever made. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times discovered the film to be of greater artistic value than many Hollywood blockbusters: "The film goes darker and deeper than any Hollywood blockbuster film of its comic-book variety." Ebert referred to a similar point of view, referring to it as a "haunted film that leaps beyond its roots and becomes an enthralling tragedy." During its theatrical run, the Dark Knight held multiple box-office records, grossing more than $1 billion worldwide. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, two for Best Sound Editing and the other for Best Supporting Actor for Heath Ledger. For his work on the film, Nolan has received numerous accolades and nominations. It was classified as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress in 2020 and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Warner Bros. signed Nolan to direct Inception (2010) following The Dark Knight's popularity. Nolan also produced and co-produced the film, which was described as "a modern sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind." Following its debut in July 2010, a large ensemble cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio made the film a critical and commercial success. The Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a perfect score of "A+" and called it "one of the best movies of the [21st] century" by Richard Roeper. "Inception is proof that people are not stupid, that cinema is not garbage," Mark Kermode said, "Inception is proof that people are not ignorant, that cinema is not garbage, and that blockbusters and art can be related." The film received eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay; Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Visual Effects. Among other accolades, Nolan has been nominated for BAFTA and Golden Globe awards.

Nolan directed his third and final Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, with Christian Bale reprising the title role. Despite being hesitant about returning to the series, Nolan decided to return after sharing a tale with his brother and David S. Goyer that he felt would come to an end to the series on a high note. The film was released in July 2012 to glowing reviews; Salon's Andrew O'Hehir dubbed it a "auteurist spectacle on a scale never before possible and never before attempted." Nolan's trilogy came in a "typically vibrant, optimistic way," but she disliked the "overloaded" tale and excessive grimness, according to Associated Press journalist Christy Lemire. The film, like its predecessor, was a box office success, becoming the thirteenth film to reach the billion-dollar mark. A gunman opened fire inside the Century 16 cinema in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 people and injuring 58 others, killing 12 others and injuring 58 others. Nolan released a statement in the press expressing his condolences for the victims of what he described as a senseless tragedy.

Goyer told Nolan of his proposal to put Superman in a modern setting during reporting for The Dark Knight Rises in 2010. Nolan pitched the idea for Man of Steel (2013) to Warner Bros, who hired Nolan to produce and Zack Snyder to direct after being impressed with Goyer's first contact concept. Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Kevin Costner, Russell Crowe, Russell Crowe, and Michael Shannon, Man of Steel, earned more than $660 million at the international box office, but received a divided critical response. Despite the mixed reviews, Nolan was overwhelmingly impressed by Snyder's work, claiming that he "knocked it out of the park" and that the film had the same ability to thrill audiences as when he first saw the Christopher Reeve version in 1978.

Nolan wrote, edited, and produced Interstellar's science-fiction film in 2014. Jonathan Nolan wrote the first drafts of the script, and Steven Spielberg was supposed to direct it. The film, based on physicist Kip Thorne's scientific findings, follows a group of astronauts on their quest for a new home for humanity. Interstellar's star, Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Bill Irwin, Michael Caine, Bill Irwin, Michael Caine, and Ellen Burstyn, were among the first to be released in November 2014 to mostly positive reviews and good box office numbers, grossing over $700 million worldwide. "Interstellar, full of photographic splendor, thematic aspiration... is a sweeping, futuristic journey fueled by fear, dread, and regret," A. O. Scott wrote in his review for The New York Times. "I loved it because it tackled the most difficult component of human discovery, which is to say that it's a multi-generational journey," documentary filmmaker Toni Myers said about the film. It was a true work of art." Interstellar was particularly lauded for its scientific integrity, which resulted in the publication of two research papers and the American Journal of Physics, which advocated for the use of the technology in school science lessons. The film received four other awards at the 87th Academy Awards, including Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Production Design. Nolan and Emma Thomas served as executive producers on Transcendence, Nolan's debut film director Wally Pfister's long-serving cinematographer, who also worked as executive producers on Transcendence in 2014.

Nolan participated in several initiatives for film preservation and distribution of lesser-known filmmakers in the mid-2010s. Syncopy, his production company, formed a joint venture with Zeitgeist Films to produce Blu-ray versions of Zeitgeist's most coveted titles. Nolan produced the documentary short Quay (2015) as part of the Brothers Quay animation film Blu-ray release. He also started a touring tour, showcasing the Quays' In Absentia, The Comb, and Street of Crocodiles. The program and Nolan's short film received critical acclaim, with IndieWire reporting that the brothers "will undoubtedly have hundreds, if not thousands more followers because of Nolan's departure, and that The Quay Brothers in 35mm will always be one of the latter's most important contributions to cinema." Nolan and visual artist Tacita Dean, an advocate for the preservation of the analogue medium, received representatives from leading American film archives, laboratories, and exhibiting institutions in March 2015 at the Getty Museum as part of an informal symposium titled Reframing the Future of Film. Following events at Tate Modern in London, Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, and the Tata Theatre in Mumbai, subpoena. Nolan served on the board of directors of The Film Foundation, a US-based non-profitable group dedicated to film preservation, in 2015, and was selected by the Library of Congress along with Martin Scorsese to serve on the National Film Preservation Board (NFPB).

Nolan returned to directing with Dunkirk (2017) after being an executive producer alongside Thomas on Zack Snyder's Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017). The tale is set during World War II and the evacuation of Allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk, France, in 1940, based on his own original screenplay and co-produced with Thomas. Nolan wanted to make a "sensory, almost experimental film" with minimal dialogue, decribing the film as a survival tale with a triptych setup. He said he wanted to make Dunkirk until he had earned enough money from a major studio to allow him to film it as a British film, but with an American budget. "Because of authentically acquit this historical drama," Nolan, who later said in an interview with Variety, "knowing and acknowledging that Chris [Nolan] is one of the world's most inventive filmmakers, my recommendation to him was to leave his imagination." Fionn Whitehead, Jack Lowden, Aneurin Barnard, Harry Styles, Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Cillian Murphy, and Kenneth Branagh, Dunkirk were all cast members of the theatres in July 2017 to widespread critical acclaim and good box office performances. It earned over $526 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing World War II film of all time. "It's one of the best war films ever made," Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote in his review, distinctive in its look, both in its approach and the effect it has on viewers. There are movies that take you out of your current circumstances and immerse you so fully in another moment of jaw-dropping awe. Dunkirk is like a movie." The film received many accolades, including Nolan's first Oscar nomination for Best Director.

Nolan supervised a new 70mm print of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), which was shot from the original camera negative; he screened it at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. Festivalgoers "greeted the director "like a rock star with a standing ovation," according to USA Today. Nolan and Thomas received executive producer credit on The Doll's Breath (2019), an animated short directed by the Quay brothers a year later. Nolan had a reputation as both a "Hollywood auteur" and "star director" by the end of the decade. "He is a celebrity in his own right, and he is one of the most well-known directors in film history," the Cinemaholic said. He has had a breakthrough both in industrial and critical space, which is an unusual feat by any means. Fans from around the world — and not just in America — who revere him and follow his every move — not just in America.

Nolan's next directorial effort was Tenet (2020), a science fiction film that The Sunday Times described as "a globe-spinning riff on all things Nolanesque." He had been working on the screenplay for more than five years, after deliberating on the company's central ideas for more than a decade. Tenet was the first Hollywood tentpole to open in theaters after the pandemic shutdown, delaying three times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film starring John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, and Kenneth Branagh raised $363 million worldwide against a $200 million production budget. Tenet received generally positive feedback from observers, but critics also described it as the most polarizing effort of his career. The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw called the film "preposterous in the tradition of Boorman's Point Blank, or even Antonioni's Zabriskie Point, a deadpan jeu d'esprit, a morbid obsession with bizarre implausibility, but it was overcharged with steroidal energy and imagination." "A chilly, cerebral film" is what Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter characterized it as "an absorbing, cerebral film that is both charming and original, but it's difficult to love, lacking in a specific humanity." At the 93rd Academy Awards, the film received Best Visual Effects and was also nominated for Best Production Design.

Following Tenet's debut, Nolan joined the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers' Advisory Board, and Tom Shone's book about Nolan's work, The Nolan Variations: The Movies, Mysteries, and Marvels of Christopher Nolan (2021) received critical notice. It's all about as close as you're ever going to get to Christopher Nolan's amazing brain, according to Sam Mendes. On Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021), a director's cut of 2017's Justice League, Nolan and Thomas served as executive producers.

Nolan's twelfth film, according to J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the atom bomb's development, will be based on J. Robert Oppenheimer and his involvement in the creation of the atom bomb in September 2021. Universal Pictures will finance and distribute the film for the first time since Memento, the director has not produced a film for Warner Bros. When Nolan first arrived at other studios, he was promised an equal production budget, total creative control, 20 percent of first-dollar gross, a 100-day theatrical window, and a blackout period from the studio, wherein the company will not have another film out three weeks after his debut. It was announced in October 2021 that Oppenheimer, a 3D film, would be released on July 2023. Cillian Murphy appears in the title role, while Hoytema, Jennifer Lame, and Ludwig Göransson appear in their respective technical roles.

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