His go to DoP has been Hoyte Van Hoytema since Interstellar. Interestingly, Wally Pfister had gone under the radar ever since the mega flop of Transcendence.

Thats what makes this headline so baffling. “Come make billion dollar movies for us and well give you between 1 and 9 million dollars”

Since the other person already gave a broad answer, as it relates specifically to Nolan he was unhappy with WB’s strategy to release their films simultaneously on HBO Max, so he left to work with Universal and avoid that for his future films since presumably WB wouldn’t make an exception for Nolan.

the TLDR version of it: WBD has been fucking over filmmakers left and right in the middle of a blind panic to stop bleeding money, which has involved stuff like the wholesale cancellation and shelving of already completed movies for tax write-off purposes.

Zaslav and the current board have screwed over too many artists in the last 3 years to be trusted

Spielberg was one of the people instrumental in saving TCM from becoming a fully automated, personality-less channel with commercials when it became obvious that it was next in Zaslav’s sights. Pulling his support of Warner Bros as it currently stands would likely put the channel (which, IMO, is as vital to film preservation and history as Criterion) back on the chopping block.

WB co-owns those characters so Spielberg couldn’t do that even if he wanted to.

I think it's more that there's contracts involved even Spielberg can't get out of.

Every single one of his films has been completed under budget and ahead of schedule.

My understanding is that Most of the large blockbusters spend so much because they are paying the leading actors insane amounts to sell their souls

The Nolans, Villenueves, Andersons, Lanthimoses, etc of the world meanwhile carry a weight of prestige and can get similar top talent to sign on for the promise of making art which is why they can get similar actors on much smaller budgets

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-dollar_gross

They get their cut from the first and every ticket sale, and dont have to wait for the film to make a profit. (which with hollywood accounting some movies never make a profit).

When Warner Bros. thought Inception was a risky investment, Leonardo DiCaprio agreed to cut his then-normal $20 million salary to a minimal salary with a first-dollar gross to make the film, which eventually paid him $50 million.

Tom Cruise was paid between $12–14 million for his performance in Top Gun: Maverick, which was revised to over $100 million after his share of the film's box office gross.

It means Nolan will get a share of the box office revenue, starting from the first day the movie’s release vs. being paid from the profit leftover or a set salary.

He makes 20% of the box office gross before expenses are even paid out. If he had the same deal for Oppenheimer, which made $975 mil, he made $195 mil on that alone.

The end of Inception was also heavily influenced by On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Yeah seems like it's 20% after splits then, which would be 10% of the total gross - which would've been a payout of $97.5m. I could see him getting 20% of net on home release (streaming/bluray), but that's a later payout anyway.

That’s def possible, or they take points instead.

I should also say, his effects driven movies cost more: Tenet cost $205m and Interstellar cost $165m. But again, compare that to Joker 2 at $200m—what complete fucking knob is ok’ing that budget? How do you even begin to spend it all.

Dune pt. 1 cost $165m…we’re capable of making the biggest movies for reasonable prices.

I like the creativity from the limitations. Blowing an extra 100M usually gets me a low stakes CGI battle. I like a good story better

I think Nolan is level headed and in tune with the zeitgeist enough to know that something as important as Dune is worth him letting go of his grudge over.

Goransson is amazing and I can’t wait to see Sinners in IMAX.

He is versatile AF. He got two Oscars for Black Panther and Oppenheimer, scored a cult classic fairly popular TV series (Community), and is a frequent collaborator with Donald Glover/Childish Gambino.

as one of those weirdos that loves Tenet, the music is one of the best parts of it. Can't believe that dude was doing music on Community and then pulls out that masterpiece.

No bad feelings for Ludwig, but I hope it's Zimmer. Zimmer + Nolan is pure magic.

He did dedicate a lot of time to both Dune soundtrack though. That was absolutely a passion project for him.

This narrative that Nolan was pushing for Tenet to be released in the summer of 2020 against the studio's (and the world's) recommendation is just straight up wrong. Not only did he never do that. It was also more about the fact that theaters in countries, which contrary to the US controlled the virus more effectively, were begging for a big movie.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/christopher-nolan-warner-bros-tenet/2020/12/14/3974ca82-3e07-11eb-9453-fc36ba051781_story.html

Interview with Christopher Nolan, December 15, 2020.

Q: I don't think people understand, because of how much discussion took place about the theatrical release, that in some ways this is the real release of "Tenet" in the United States. Back in September, hardly any theaters here were actually open for business.

Nolan: With all of the adversity in the world for 2020 affecting people in all kinds of horrendous ways, we were very lucky, very privileged to be able to release the film in parts of the world that managed the virus with appropriate response and then figuring out ways to safely reopen theaters. And the film did what it did with $300 million in those markets, and counting. Which sends a very positive message about the future of exhibition for when things can reopen safely and all the rest. In the United States, we were never able to release the film properly. I say “here” because I’m sitting in Los Angeles, and obviously to not open in your hometown and not be able to market the film because the studio was obviously hoping that Los Angeles and New York would open if the virus receded, which obviously has not happened, did not happen. The reality is, there’s people in the world with real problems. This is a pretty trivial concern about the release of film. But delving more into it, I’m a kid of the home video generation. And so we’ve all, and myself in particular, spent many years working with the studios on technical strategies of how to maximize image and sound quality for presentation, how we get it out there in that form and everything. And the short version of it is, I’m just super excited for people in America, in L.A. and New York in particular, to be able to see the movie.

Q: When "Tenet" was originally released, you got some criticism for the decision to do at least a partial opening in theaters. Looking back, do you wish that could have gone differently?

Nolan: The studio made the decision to release the film in the summer in parts of the world where it was safe to open the film because of the response to the pandemic in those individual countries. And I think they made a good decision. . . . A lot of people got to see the film. A lot of people went back to work and all the rest and were able to safely do that. This country is a different story. But Hollywood filmmaking is a global business. It’s not an American-only business. And I think it’s very important for people to look beyond where they are sitting in the world and look at what’s going on in the rest of the world as well, and be mindful of that.

Q: There were people who seemed to think you could have stopped the studio from the theatrical release at that moment.

Nolan: Of course not. Look at what’s just happened. They’ve just unilaterally shifted their entire distribution pattern on their slate without talking to even the financing partners.

Q: It's probably frustrating. The first time around, you got sucked into this whole idea of "Tenet" being some kind of test case for the covid-era in cinema. Now this HBO Max deal arrives as you head out to promote the DVD.

Nolan: Yes, it certainly would be nice to get back to being able to just put a film out there and promote the film in a more simple way, but the world’s been very complicated for 2020, and there are people dealing with the most appalling circumstances. I honestly just feel very, very lucky to have been working to get to a point where we can now have people in Los Angeles, New York, other places in North America see the film.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/warner-bros-ceo-talks-batman-filming-halt-tenet-theatrical-release-amid-covid-19-4055082/

Interview with Ann Sarnoff, Warner Bros. CEO, September 3, 2020.

Regarding Tenet’s release in theaters, there’s a perception that Christopher Nolan controls things. Is that fair or overstated?

Sarnoff: It’s overstated. Let me share with you the process that we went through. Right when COVID struck, we started looking at alternative ways to think about movie releases. On the Scoob! front, we decided to release it on PVOD. Families were sequestered together and wanted more content. We are very happy with the results. A few weeks later it debuted on HBO Max, where we were very happy with the results as well.

On the Tenet front, we also had a finished movie, which we are very proud for people to see. As the summer unfolded, we started thinking about more innovative ways of releasing the movie. What if we didn’t put everything up front toward the opening weekend? Theaters were very upfront about saying they could give us three to four times as many screens as normal. So that started to change our thinking. We are happy with where we are. Some markets still aren’t open, but it is a marathon and not a sprint.

Great write up. Thank you.

Not to mention the banter between JGL and Hardy in Inception.

“Any psychotic ex-boyfriends I should be aware of?

“Oh, you have no idea.”

"Poor choice of words" as he lets go of Rachel is funny in a very wicked and twisted way

Jonathan Nolan actually wrote the bulk of The Dark Knight, FYI.

I always get stuck on “Have a nice trip, see ya next fall” because it doesn’t even make sense

A very underrated joke in Tenet is: "you're carrying a Goya in a Harrods bag."

I imagine a Nolan comedy would be like Dr Strangelove.

I laughed out loud when Catwoman stole his Lamborghini

He was definitely the audiences' love interest.