Nobody was shocked by Christopher Nolan’s exit from Warner Bros. in 2021. We all saw it coming.
After the news that WarnerMedia decided to shift its entire 2021 film slate to HBO Max, it was almost a given that cinematic purist Christopher Nolan, Warner Bros.’ most cherished and important filmmaker, would be walking away from the studio.
Now there are new bosses at Warner, including David Zaslav, not to mention co-CEOs and co-chairpeople Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy. SPOILER ALERT: They want Nolan back. "We’re hoping to get Nolan back. I think there’s a world." De Luca tells Variety:
Two sources familiar with Nolan say that the director received a seven-figure royalty check from Warner Bros. within the past eight months. The payment was tied to his 2020 film "Tenet," which the studio released. A source says De Luca, Abdy, and Zaslav all agreed he was owed the bonus in good faith. No strings were attached, according to insiders, but the studio was partly motivated to repair that fractured relationship.
In a sign of rapprochement, Nolan also did post-production work on "Oppenheimer" on the Warners lot.
It was a major loss for Warner Bros., which had cultivated an incredible relationship with Nolan over the past two decades. Ever since Nolan’s 2002 remake of "Insomnia," the filmmaker and studio have been in partnership, releasing films such as the ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy, "Interstellar," "Dunkirk," and "Inception."
In 2020, Nolan tightened the hand of WB and, basically, forced them to release "Tenet" in theatres during the pandemic. That is how much faith WB had in Nolan, and it cost them dearly as "Tenet" barely passed the $50 million mark at the domestic box office, but it did, however, manage to amass a cumulative total of $333 million worldwide.
Clearly, the whole mess left a lot of artists, not just Nolan, feeling burdened and worried about working with the studio. Nolan ended up taking his next project, "Oppenheimer," to Universal.
It is indeed an enticing proposition for Nolan to return to his old home, to go back to the studio that made him who he is today, giving him total carte blanche with almost every movie he creates.
It helps that Zaslav and company are saying that none of their theatrical movies will be made for streaming only but will instead receive theatrical releases exclusively. I bet Nolan goes back.