As Christopher Nolan prepares his next movie at Universal, more has been revealed about his post-Tenet relationship with Warner Bros. and whether he’s had serious talks about James Bond in the past. The latter feels like a given, but do we really want that from him?
Variety shed some light on where Nolan is at right now, how his previous studio tried to lure him back after a falloff following Tenet’s release strategy, and whether he’s properly flirted with the 007 IP at some point. It’s an interesting read, but I have some thoughts about this whole ‘Nolan doing Bond sooner or later’ matter.
First thing’s first: It appears we can rule out a return to Warner Bros. anytime soon, as Variety’s report claims “Warner Bros. wrote him a seven-figure check, returning the ‘Tenet’ fees he waived” following the divisive WarnerMedia 2022 merger with Discovery and ensuing regime change. It’s been said that Nolan accepted the check, but still moved forward with Oppenheimer at Universal and has kept his next movie in place there.
Everyone’s now trying to figure out what his next movie could be about, too. Some say he might be returning to the espionage space, which wouldn’t be a surprise, given he has a huge respect for the genre and both Inception and Tenet had crystal-clear Bond influences. In fact, this might be the main reason why Christopher Nolan’s James Bond might never happen (and that may be a good thing).
Variety’s piece teases that Nolan did indeed flirt “with making a Bond film at one point.” This wouldn’t come as a surprise despite the filmmaker recently rejecting that idea; such conversations could’ve happened long ago, during the Daniel Craig era of the character. Most Bond and Nolan fans would be over the moon if he was given the keys to 007’s Aston Martin, yet it feels that he doesn’t need to leave his mark on the famous British movie series anymore.
Inception and Tenet were essentially about ‘dream spies’ and ‘time spies’ respectively, with the latter leaning even harder on the Bond influences. We’ve already taken a good look at what a Christopher Nolan-directed Bond movie might look like, only they also were damn inventive sci-fi romps on top of that. Why would folks be realistically excited for Nolan to tackle ‘just regular spies’ next beyond the IP’s appeal and crossing his name off a list of big directors to have toyed with 007’s mythology?
While such a project makes total sense on a surface level, what could he do there that he hasn’t already done? I’d rather have him add new, original twists to a genre that he clearly loves and respects.
