‘The Odyssey’ Director Christopher Nolan Addresses “Bewildering” Rumor About Remaking ‘Blue Thunder’

The rumor mill on the internet is a fascinating place where you can find some exciting, but often bunk information about all sorts of upcoming and would-be film projects from various corners. Case in point: back in 2024, when there was buzz about Christopher Nolan getting back in the director’s chair after the whirlwind success of “Oppenheimer,” a slew of rumors circulated online about what that next project could be (ultimately revealed as “The Odyssey“). Well, Nolan has finally addressed one of these specific rumblings that originated from Reddit, suggesting he was going to do an action-focused helicopter movie as a remake or homage of sorts to the Roy Scheider-led (best known from “Jaws,” “Sorcerer,” and “The French Connection“) movie “Blue Thunder” from 1983, which the director has no idea how got started.

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Speaking with The Telegraph to promote his Greek epic (now in theaters, and check out The Playlist’s in-depth review for it), Nolan actually took the time to briefly talk about those helicopter-centric action-thriller remake rumblings, and as you might imagine, he had no idea (he’s not really an online person and famously doesn’t own a smartphone) where someone would have gotten that idea from. Finally debunking and putting that bizarre rumor to rest, once and for all (phew, thank goodness for that).

“Having no smartphone, he adds, also means he’s never tempted to hop online to debunk rumors, spar with haters, or respond to gossip – such as the odd story that circulated last year that his next film would be a remake of the 1983 helicopter action thriller ‘Blue Thunder.’ He says he was ‘bewildered’ when he read it: ‘I have absolutely no idea where it came from. And besides, I was always more of an Airwolf fan.'”

Nolan’s “The Odyssey” is having a HUGE moment right now (we can envision stars Matt Damon, Anne Hathway, and John Leguizamo being strong Oscar contenders for their performances), and deserves it, after the project sight-unseen was getting maligned by bigoted “anti-woke” factions online (some high-profile rascist dolts like Elon Musk egging it on) triggered by the fantasy film’s multicultural cast (one of the highlights of the movie, in retrospect), and from box office projections that the vocal minority won’t have any real impact on the moviegoing public. Nolan himself stated that those bigoted reactions and backlash are “irrelevant” in the end, and it looks like he was right, again, as the movie is eyeing a billion-dollar total at the global box office.

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So, whatever Christopher Nolan ends up making next (the filmmaker says won’t be happening for “at least” three years), we can now rule out a horror film anytime soon (although he’d “love” to tackle a straight entry in the popular genre), and now this ridiculous talk of a “Blue Thunder” remake is finally put to rest. We’re sure the talk of turning the Patrick McGoohan thriller series “The Prisoner” into a movie will keep chugging along, after once being attached to a feature iteration in 2009 for WB (his former studio home), and his brother/collaborator Jonathan Nolan teased a few years ago that one of Christopher’s unmade projects is a comedy.