christopher

16 Sep

Will Christopher Nolan Deal Reshape Future of Theatrical Distribution?

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Like most things Christopher Nolan does these days, his historic deal with Universal Pictures is big. We’re still learning the finer details of this new business relationship which will give the world Nolan’s next film based on the life J. Robert Oppenheimer, the remorseful father of the atomic bomb, but thanks to The Hollywood Reporter, the biggest elements are coming into focus. In addition to securing a theatrical release and a $100 million (or so) budget for the “smaller” Nolan picture, the filmmaker behind Inception, Tenet, and The Dark Knight Trilogy also demanded his next studio put up an equally…

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10 Sep

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer Follows Man Who Lived Long Enough to ‘Become the Villain’

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Not everyone can die a hero. Christopher Nolan emphasized that point by even taking the mask away from Batman in The Dark Knight Trilogy, proving Bruce Wayne knows how to make an entrance and then be smart enough to plan an exit strategy. Exits proved vital to other Nolan projects as well, including the searing Dunkirk, a World War II epic highlighting the heroism of the common foot soldier and the British evacuation of France. Now his next movie will also be set during WWII, but it’s about an extraordinary man, who never forgave himself for building the weapon that…

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22 May

Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor Has Always Been Doctor Who’s Secret Weapon

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Sometimes, impossible things just happen, and we call them miracles. Though that line may have been spoken by Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith in the Season 5 episode “The Pandorica Opens,” it has perhaps special relevance for Doctor Who fans right now, who are living through a moment most of us had given up hope on ever seeing. No, it’s not the fact that the Doctor is a woman now. (I’d like to believe we all knew that would eventually happen at some point, no matter how many folks resisted or complained about it.) It’s that Christopher Eccleston, the man who…

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05 May

Tenet Is Christopher Nolan’s Unofficial James Bond Movie

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This article contains Tenet spoilers. Throughout the Daniel Craig era of James Bond, the influence of Christopher Nolan has been hard to miss. A year after Nolan reinvented Dark Knight mythology with Batman Begins, and created the industry term of a “reboot” in the process, 007 had his own back-to-basics reset in Casino Royale. And following The Dark Knight’s praise for reconfiguring its iconography again for a post-War on Terror world, Skyfall would receive similar acclaim a few years later for its chilly, realpolitik tone. But no matter how many developments in the Bond canon end up attributed to Nolan’s…

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19 Apr

Line of Duty Series 6 Episode 5: Thurwell, Homozygosity, Lawrence Christopher Questions & Theories

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Warning: contains spoilers for Line of Duty series 6 episode 5 The pause button really came into its own in this week’s Line of Duty instalment, which was even more packed than usual with references to the past. It saw the return of Patrick Fairbank, and the new arrival of a potential ‘H’ candidate played by Jimmy Nesbitt, plus a cliffhanger that threatened the end of DI Kate Fleming (see below for more on that). On top of all that, it turned out that Jo Davidson being related to Tommy Hunter wasn’t the worst of her DNA revelations; her family…

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02 Apr

Christopher Eccleston on Why Doctor Who Canon Needs Exploding

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Without the acerbic wit of the Ninth Doctor in 2005, the 21st-century geek landscape would look a whole lot different. If we were to borrow the TARDIS from Doctor Who, and pop back to the debut of “Rose” on March 26, 2005, we’d know we were standing on the edge of a moment when everything changed. Before Doctor Who, Christopher Eccleston had been known for hard-edged, gritty roles like the game-changing horror flick 28 Days Later or Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave. After Doctor Who, Eccleston was known for…well…even more hard-edged roles; from the baddie Malekith in Thor: The Dark World…

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23 Feb

Christopher McQuarrie: Nightmare on Elm Street Shows Movie Theaters Can’t Be Replaced

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Edgar Wright has assembled a treasure trove. That’s the best way to describe what it feels like to be a cinephile reading the March 2021 issue of Empire magazine. In an approach more persuasive than any weighty think piece on box office numbers, or an introspective Op-Ed from a film critic, the Shaun of the Dead and Baby Driver filmmaker made the case for cinema by compiling a list of anecdotes and stories, big and small, from fans and legendary filmmakers alike. Because when the lights go out in a darkened theater, we’re all the same audience for a brief,…

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22 Feb

Justice League: How Christopher Nolan Helped Prevent Zack Snyder from Seeing the Whedon Cut

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It was a very select group of people who were satisfied with the Justice League movie which hit theaters in November 2017. As a Frankenstein’s monster of cinematic body parts, some derived from the original production helmed by director Zack Snyder and other scenes created whole cloth at the last minute by Joss Whedon during reshoots, the finished Justice League is a patchwork. But no one had more reason to be dissatisfied than Zack Snyder. Hence why Deborah Snyder, his wife and producing partner, as well as family friend Christopher Nolan stopped him from ever seeing it. In previous interviews,…

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07 Feb

How Christopher Plummer Became One of the Best Villains in Star Trek Movie History

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Christopher Plummer appeared in over 200 films during a storied career spanning seven decades. Though he first found fame as Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music, that ultimately provided a springboard to an eclectic career that surprised and delighted in equal measure. Plummer was an accomplished theatre performer with an uncanny knack for stealing the show in minor yet memorable roles; a magnetic presence you simply couldn’t take your eyes off.  Everyone has a favourite Plummer performance whether it be as Rudyard Kipling in John Huston’s The Man Who Would Be King or his recent turn in Rian…

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09 Dec

Christopher Nolan is Right About This Much in the WB and HBO Max Deal…

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It appears as though there’s trouble in paradise. Could Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. be breaking up? The studio has been the filmmaker’s home since 2002’s Insomnia, and WB took a huge gamble on Nolan this past summer when it released Tenet in theaters during the COVID-19 pandemic. But all that was before WB, and perhaps more crucially WarnerMedia, opted to go in the opposite direction. It was before WB announced its entire 2021 film slate would premiere simultaneously on HBO Max and in theaters. As you’ve likely heard by now, the Tenet director and champion of all things theatrical…

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08 Dec

HBO Max Backlash: Christopher Nolan and More Filmmakers Rip Warner Bros. Over Streaming Release

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Last week’s earthshaking decision by WarnerMedia to launch the entire Warner Bros. Pictures 2021 film slate on its new streaming service, HBO Max, concurrent with a theatrical release, was seen by the industry and the public as the game-changing move that it was clearly meant to be. But the strategy is already garnering a fierce backlash from at least one of the studio’s top filmmakers, as well as a production company that has a major financial stake in several of Warner’s upcoming blockbusters. Director Christopher Nolan, who has possibly made more money for Warner Bros. in the past 20 years…

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06 Nov

Tenet Online Release: How to Stream the Christopher Nolan Movie

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Christopher Nolan’s Tenet was supposed to be the movie that saved moviegoing. The picture that would jumpstart an interest in returning to cinemas around the world, and enjoying the shared communal experience of watching films with strangers in the dark. It didn’t really pan out that way, at least in the U.S. and parts of Europe, but it still grossed nearly $350 million worldwide. Granted, this is far below the standards of usual Nolan sci-fi epic like Interstellar, which earned $678 million, but hey, that means a lot of folks are about to see it for the first time ever…

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08 Oct

Robert De Niro Talks Going to Battle Again with Christopher Walken in The War with Grandpa

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It’s a different battlefield from what they’ve known before, and a different kind of movie set too. Perched atop a series of trampolines, with bouncy surfaces beneath their feet, and red rose dodgeballs in their hands, Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken are standing side by side on screen for the first time since 1978’s The Deer Hunter. In that earlier movie, they played young men who eagerly went off to war, but now they’re in a different kind of conflict here. They’re in the midst of The War with Grandpa’s biggest battle. The scene in question occurs at the…

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21 Aug

Tenet Review: Christopher Nolan’s Sci-fi Spy Movie Explodes Into Cinemas

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For better or worse, Tenet is the most important film of 2020. Sure, it’s the new Christopher Nolan film, an event movie shrouded in secrecy with a terrific cast which in any year would be an important mark on the cinematic calendar. But this year, when cinemas have been closed for months, where streaming services are king and several big releases have eschewed a theatrical opening altogether or been pushed back to 2021 and beyond, all eyes are on Tenet. Or rather Warner Bros. is *hoping* all eyes, or at least a decent number of eyes, will be on Tenet…

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09 Aug

Doctor Who: Christopher Eccleston Returns for Big Finish Audio Dramas

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The Ninth Doctor is coming back to the TARDIS, more than 15 years after Christopher Eccleston quit the newly revived Doctor Who after just one series in the lead role. BBC Studios and Big Finish have announced that Eccleston will lead the cast in a series of new audio adventures, the first volume of which is due to arrive in May 2021.  The behind-the-scenes difficulties that led to Eccleston’s exit from BBC One’s Doctor Who in 2005 are no secret, adding extra interest over the years to the regularly raised question of any potential return. Unlike his successor David Tennant, who returned alongside previous…

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05 Aug

Seth Rogen Jokingly Asks If Christopher Nolan Would ‘Kill His Greatest Fans’ with Tenet

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Seth Rogen’s An American Pickle was considering a direct-to-consumer distribution before it was the new normal. That is to say even before the coronavirus pandemic forced Sony Pictures’ hand in relinquishing the rights to the odd, pensive comedy to HBO Max, Rogen and the studio were already looking to part ways on the particular project. Which is pretty far from the odyssey of theatrical delays and frustrations Christopher Nolan’s Tenet is on. It’s an unusual comparison to make, but Rogen is the first to point to the lack of similarities while speaking with The Hollywood Reporter. Talking to that trade…

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28 Jul

Tenet’s Release Date Forgets the Lessons of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar

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It seems fairly certain now that Tenet will be released in theaters at the end of the summer. Warner Bros. confirmed as much Monday when the studio announced Christopher Nolan’s latest epic is set to open in 70 countries, including the UK, on Aug. 26. It will then make the jump stateside to vaguely determined “select U.S. cities” on Sept. 2, just in time for Labor Day weekend. While plans can change—they have before—there is almost a weary resignation about this announcement. We’re opening this in theaters in 2020, come hell or high water. Yet one of the many bitter…

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23 Jul

Link Tank: Every Christopher Nolan Film So Far, Ranked

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From Interstellar to The Dark Knight, here’s every film by acclaimed director Christopher Nolan, ranked. “These days, if you’re talking about movies, you’re probably talking about Christopher Nolan. Oh sure, some really good movies have premiered on streaming during the pandemic, but all eyes have been on the latest blockbuster from Nolan, Tenet, which many expect to usher in a return to movie theaters post-covid-19.” Read more at Gizmodo. There is a LEGO version of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” music video. “Finally, you can Rickroll your LEGO-obsessed friends in a way that makes them feel truly loved…

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21 Jul

Tenet: Could Christopher Nolan’s Movie Leave the U.S. Behind?

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Christopher Nolan’s Tenet is delayed. Again. In a media narrative that’s depressingly familiar during the coronavirus pandemic, a major blockbuster was forced to move once more when Warner Bros. pushed Tenet off its scheduled Aug. 12 release to dates unknown. This was, of course, the responsible choice due to the recent skyrocketing of COVID-19 infection rates in the United States. But it also marks the third time Nolan and WB were thwarted in reviving the theatrical moviegoing experience. Yet despite the seeming inevitability of major studios abandoning movie theaters for potentially the rest of 2020, Warner Bros. has signaled it…

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26 May

Christopher Nolan Revealed as MacGruber Superfan

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The cast and crew of MacGruber celebrated the film’s tenth anniversary last week, and although the feature project, based Will Forte’s MacGyver-esque Saturday Night Live sketch, flopped on release in 2010, it’s since become a comedy cult classic. Forte tweeted an acknowledgement of the movie’s original fate last week, writing “On this day exactly 10 years ago, MacGruber started shitting the bed in the nation’s box offices. By the end of our 3 week theatrical run, not an inch of that bedset was salvageable. Even the mattress protector was soaked through.” The film doesn’t just have an enthusiastic fan base…

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