Christopher Nolan says he’s still interested in making a horror film, but only if he finds the right story to tell.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter while discussing The Odyssey, Nolan revealed that working on the epic has only increased his appetite for the genre. When it was pointed out that large stretches of The Odyssey already contain several horror subgenres, Nolan joked that audiences no longer need to ask him to make one.
“They don’t need to beg me to tell a horror story anymore. Just buy a ticket.”
Although The Odyssey scratched that creative itch, Nolan said it ultimately left him wanting to explore horror even further. However, he emphasized that any future project would need to begin with an ‘amazing idea.’
“It very much whets my appetite for more. But I’ve always believed that horror as a genre has to be approached very carefully from a conceptual point of view. In other words, you have to have an amazing idea.”
He then pointed to breakout indie hit Obsession as an example:
“When you go see a film like Obsession, that’s an amazing idea. That movie works like a motherfucker. It’s not about the technical side. It’s not about what technical itches I would have to scratch. It’s about story. So I’m always looking.”
While discussing future projects, Nolan also joked that Robert Pattinson failed to hand him another movie-worthy wrap gift after The Odyssey. Pattinson famously gave Nolan a collection of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s speeches after Tenet, a gift Nolan has credited as one of the sparks that eventually led to Oppenheimer. Asked if Pattinson had topped himself this time around, Nolan laughed:
“Did Rob hand me some horror novel by Stephen King that’ll make an excellent adaptation? Sadly, no, that is not the case.”
Fans pointed to his scenes with the Cyclops, Circe, the Underworld, and the Laestrygonians as having horror elements.
Matt Damon says the latter sequence was filmed using forced perspective to make the Laestrygonians appear larger than life. The stunt performers playing the Laestrygonians were all over 7 feet tall, while the stunt doubles for Odysseus’ army were 5 feet. Damon himself said his stunt double was a woman with the ‘greatest arms’ he’s ever seen. Nolan has also mentioned they shot it with 7 IMAX cameras.
“When we did the force perspective stuff with the Laestrygonians… there were these stuntmen who were all seven feet and then they got stunt men who were under five feet. My double was a woman, a female stunt performer who had the greatest arms I’ve ever seen. When she came into the catering tent, it was the first time I met her. I went up and hugged her and thanked her for all the work she put in. here are those shots where you see these giants looming over me [and that’s her]. It was almost 100% my arms in the movie but you got to give it up where it’s due”
Nolan also left the door open to working with Christian Bale again in the future. Asked whether another collaboration could happen with The Prestige returns to theaters for its 20th anniversary next year, including a 70mm release.
“Of course. He’s one of the great actors of his generation, and I’ve had tremendous experiences with him.”
“For The Prestige … We’re actually going to do 70 millimeter blow-ups. Wally Pfister shot it anamorphically on 35 millimeter, and he did an incredible job. I screened a 35 mil print the other day to check it, and his photography is just extraordinary. Nathan Crowley’s production design is amazing as well. So it’s going to look absolutely beautiful blown up to 70 millimeter.”
Nolan has previously indicated it will be ‘at least‘ 3 years before his new film, citing The Odyssey shoot as the toughest yet with the next IMAX camera tech and on-location filming.
“I definitely hit the limits of my own stamina and everybody’s stamina.”
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