After a saga in which Christopher Nolan felt that his movie, Tenet, was mishandled by Warner Bros., the director parted ways with the studio. Nolan had worked with Warner Bros. for most of his professional career, but the studio’s decision to release many of its 2021 titles both in theaters and on HBO Max was profoundly upsetting to the director.
Since leaving Warner Bros., Nolan has set up shop at Universal Studios, which is where he directed Oppenheimer, earning the studio a Best Picture Oscar. Nolan has also set his next film up at Universal, but Variety is reporting that Warner Bros. made a concerted effort to get the director back. When he battled with the studio over Tenet, they agreed to release the movie theatrically if he agreed to forego certain fees that were part of his contract. Nolan agreed at the time, and Warner Bros. tried to lure him back by writing a seven-figure check with the money that he had foregone.
That gesture failed to do the trick, and Nolan set the movie up at the studio that had made Oppenheimer such a success. Nolan still lives in a relatively modest house in Hollywood and drives a 20-year-old Honda, and he seemed to be suggesting that money was not the reason he was upset with the studio. Although the gesture didn’t work, it speaks to the unique status that Nolan has achieved in Hollywood. He is a director who is also a name brand, and whose films almost always do well at the box office, even though they aren’t part of any sort of long-running franchise.
