Christopher Nolan Originally Conceived Inception As A Horror Movie It’s been 23 years since Christopher Nolan dazzled moviegoers with his breakout neo-noir “Memento,” and he has more than made good on that film’s overwhelming promise. In terms of building a Hollywood filmmaking career, there’s not a single misstep in his filmography. He proved himself capable of handling a major studio picture with “Insomnia,” did a graceful one-for-them/one-for-me two-step between Batman movies and personal projects, and now can call his tune at an unprecedented level. Every studio wants Nolan, and they’re willing to give him anything he wants to lock him down. And now that he’s about to win the Best Picture and Best Director Oscars for “Oppenheimer” (a three-hour biopic that is currently $60 million short of a $1 billion worldwide gross), his rate is about to get a significant bump. Given that Nolan has never gone more than three years between movies, it’s not too early to speculate as to what he’ll do next. He’s reached an intriguing juncture in his career; though he’s hopped around genre-wise (from noir to superheroes to cerebral spy thriller to sci-fi to war movie to the brain-scrambling olio that is “Tenet”), his films contain the same aesthetic DNA. If he wanted to take a vacation from the Nolan house style and make a stripped-down, improvised drama or comedy, he could do it risk-free. The film could fail, and he’d still be the most in-demand director on the planet. The possibilities are limitless, and Nolan’s taste is fairly diverse (e.g. he adores Adam McKay’s “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby”). I’m down for whatever he does post-“Oppenheimer”, but if there’s one genre in particular I’d love to see him try on for size, it’d be horror. Interestingly, it wouldn’t be the first time he considered throwing a good scare into us. Leonardo DiCaprio as a nattily attired Freddy Krueger? In a 2010 interview with The Telegraph, Nolan revealed that “Inception” began life as an experiment in subconscious terror. Per Nolan: “I was thinking along the lines of a horror movie at first, but it eventually became this project. I was looking for a device whereby the dreams would become important to the story, and the thought that someone could invade your dream space and steal an idea is immensely compelling to me. The concept that dreams feel real while we’re in them underlies the whole film.” It would’ve been fascinating to see Nolan work a brainy riff on “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” but I’d prefer something a tad less derivative. At a recent British Film Institute Q&A, he again expressed interest in tackling a horror picture. “I think a really good horror film requires a really exceptional idea. And those are few and far between,” he said. “So I haven’t found a story that lends itself to that.” This was a week ago, so unless he’s struck by a bolt of inspiration soon, it seems unlikely that he’ll make a fright flick in the near future. But a movie-mad Nolan fan can, uh, dream, right? (Personally, I hope his next movie is an animal-centric inspirational sports romp à la “Air Bud” or “Gus”.)
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