Universal's J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER & THE ATOM BOMB directed by Christopher Nolan (TBD) 3 3

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Hopes were always high for Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.” The studio knew the film was great, and commercial. But no one in the industry expected that a long, talky, R-rated drama released at the height of the summer movie season would earn over $900 million at the box office.

 

After an early screening, “ Dune” filmmaker Denis Villeneuve said he knew he’d just seen “a masterpiece.” He even remembered saying that it would be a big success.

 

“But where it is right now has blown the roof off of my projection,” Villeneuve told The Associated Press. “It’s a three-hour movie about people talking about nuclear physics.”

 

Even after nine weeks in theaters, 11 of the 25 screens capable of projecting the coveted IMAX 70mm prints ( Nolan’s preferred format ) continued to play the film on some of the busiest screens, like the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles and the AMC Lincoln Square in New York.

 

[drotto]

And now he is rumored to be directing James Bond.

[Bosco685]

On 9/19/2023 at 2:06 PM, drotto said:

And now he is rumored to be directing James Bond.

Yup. That was mentioned in the "who to cast as James Bond" thread before you get any ideas.

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IMAX swung to a profit and saw revenue revenue jump in the September quarter, buoyed by Oppenheimer and other content from Hollywood to local language films, concert films, docs and live events.

 

The big screen exhibitor and tech company posted a net profit of $12 million versus a loss of $9 million the year earlier on revenue of $104 million, up 51%. It was the second highest grossing quarter of all time at the global Imax box office, the company said. Key contributors to third Oppenheimer with $180 million in Imax gross box office, from Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1 and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Local language titles were led by China’s Creation of the Gods: Kingdom of Storms ($32.3 million), with strong contributions coming from No More Bets, Lost in the Stars, and Jawan

 

[The humble Watcher lurking]

On 10/25/2023 at 8:29 AM, Bosco685 said:

 

Supposed to be streaming soon on HBO Max before Christmas. We shall see. 

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Nolan hasn’t made up his mind about the kind of movie he’ll make next. And when I push him on whether he’d return to franchise filmmaking, as he did so effectively with his “Batman” films, or if he’d prefer to make a movie purely based on an original idea, he leaves the door ajar. 

 

“Ideas come from everywhere,” he says. “I’ve done a remake, I’ve made adaptations from comic books and novels, and I’ve written original screenplays. I’m open to anything. But as a writer and director, whatever I do, I have to feel like I own it completely. I have to make it original to me: The initial seed of an idea may come from elsewhere, but it has to go through my fingers on a keyboard and come out through my eyes alone.” 

 

It will be intriguing to see how Nolan spends the capital he’s accrued from the critical and commercial success of “Oppenheimer.” Ever since “The Dark Knight’’ topped the box office, studios have been lining up to work with him. He’s used their interest to greenlight cerebral epics and historical dramas that others might have had trouble getting made. These movies, whether they take place in the streets of Gotham City or on the beaches of France, center on similar themes. Many, if not most, of Nolan’s films contain a warning: The search for knowledge is perilous. That danger is front and center in “Oppenheimer,” where the quest to harness the power of the atom creates unimaginable suffering. 

 

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Nolan is stunned by the grosses, as well as the Oscar buzz that “Oppenheimer” is generating. “With certain films, your timing is just right in ways that you never could have predicted,” he says. “When you start making a film, you’re two or three years out from when it’s going to be released, so you’re trying to hit a moving target as far as the interest of the audience. But sometimes you catch a wave and the story you’re telling is one people are waiting for.”

 

Despite the drama involving the “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” release date, as well as his criticism of Warner Bros., Nolan’s relationship with the studio isn’t irretrievably broken. “It’s water under the bridge,” he says of the feud.

 

For one thing, the media chiefs that Nolan came out swinging against are gone. AT&T, which had prioritized streaming above all else, sold a controlling stake in the company to Discovery in 2022. The newly rechristened Warner Bros. Discovery then installed CEO David Zaslav, setting the stage for Kilar’s exit. Zaslav also recruited new movie chiefs, Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy. So is Nolan open to working with Warner Bros. again? 

 

“Oh yeah, absolutely,” he says. “Pam and Mike and Zaslav, they’re trying to do some great things with that studio, which is encouraging to see.”

 

[VintageComics]

On 11/6/2023 at 6:33 AM, Bosco685 said:

 

When you put a chip on the shoulder of someone capable, it's best to step out of their way. 

Amazing. 

[VintageComics]

I don't follow this sort of convo on budgets closely, but doesn't a $100 Million budget sound sound cheap for a film with a cast like this?

[Bosco685]

On 11/17/2023 at 12:41 AM, VintageComics said:

I don't follow this sort of convo on budgets closely, but doesn't a $100 Million budget sound sound cheap for a film with a cast like this?

When Nolan decided to leave WB Studios he put out a call to the other studios what he required in order to work with them. The $100 production budget was one of those requirements.

How Universal Beat Other Studios to Land Christopher Nolan’s New World War II Epic

Inside the Studios’ (And Apple’s) Frenzy to Get Christopher Nolan’s Next Film

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The project is meant to be a smaller-scale feature film for Nolan, which in his case, meant a production budget of around $100 million and an equal marketing spend, according to sources. He asked for total creative control, 20 percent of first-dollar gross, and a blackout period from the studio wherein the company would not release another movie three weeks before or three weeks after his release. And he asked for what insiders say was around a 100-day theatrical window. (Some sources have said the number was 110 days, with one person saying it was 130 days.) These were, in fact, many of the conditions Nolan was accustomed to enjoying at Warners.

Later the reporting site Collider broke down the details how he achieved a $100M budget. Including no CGI and actors setting their rates below their traditional amounts.

Oppenheimer’ Budget Breakdown: How Christopher Nolan’s Historical Epic Became a Break Out Hit

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Since being cast as Scarecrow in The Dark Knight trilogy, BAFTA nominee Cillian Murphy has worked with Christopher Nolan a few times, appearing in Inception and Dunkirk.

Other significant supporting characters include Emily Blunt as Kitty Oppenheimer, Matt Damon as Leslie Groves, Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, and Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock. In July 2022, Variety reported that Blunt, Damon, and Downey were paid $4 million apiece for their roles in the film, which is less than they are typically paid, which typically is around $10-20 million. Given that Cillian Murphy is the lead of the film, we can assume that he was probably around the $10-20 million mark.

 

Also in the film are other recognizable figures like Alden Ehrenreich, Jason Clarke, Kenneth Branagh, David Krumholtz, Alex Wolff, Matthew Modine, Dane DeHaan, David Dastmalchian, Josh Peck, Jack Quaid, and more, making it, so the budget must be at least half the film's reported $100 million budget if not more so.

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According to Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer has zero CGI effects within it whatsoever. We don't know exactly how that's possible in a film all about the creation and testing of the atomic bomb, but impressive practical effects like that don't come cheap. Digital effects cost a pretty penny as well, but there's a reason why Hollywood studios have generally strayed away from practical effects in favor of CGI. Considering the cast list is already massive and star-studded, the VFX budget likely makes up most of, if not all of, the rest of the budget.

 

Edited November 17, 2023 by Bosco685

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Barbenheimer cross-interview between Margot Robbie and Cillian Murphy

 

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