A lot has been made about Quentin Tarantino’s plan to retire as a film director after his upcoming 10th feature. Some see it as a brave and noble thing, to put down the camera after 10 (hopefully) awesome movies. Others, like Christopher Nolan apparently, understand the allure of leaving behind a pristine filmography, but also can’t imagine stepping away from the role of feature film storyteller.
Speaking to the ReelBlend podcast, Christopher Nolan commented on Quentin Tarantino’s plan to retire after his upcoming 10th feature film. While he understands why Tarantino is doing it, the “Oppenheimer” filmmaker isn’t quite sure he’d be willing to make that sort of sacrifice.
“The truth is, I understand both points of view. It’s addictive to tell stories in cinema. It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s very fun. It’s something you feel driven to do, and so it’s a little hard to imagine voluntarily stopping,” explained Nolan. “But I also see … Quentin’s point has always been that – and he never, very graciously, he’s never specific about the films he’s talking about or whatever – but he’s looking at some of the work done by filmmakers in later years and feeling that if it can’t live up to the heyday, it would be better if it didn’t exist. And I think that’s a very purest point of view. It’s the point of view of a cinephile who prizes film history.”
READ MORE: Christoper Nolan On Heath Ledger, Robert Downey, Jr. & ‘Oppenheimer’ [Interview]
Personally, Nolan added, he’s not “sure that I would trust my own sense of the absolute value of a piece of work to know whether or not it should have been brought into existence.”
All that to say, it’s clear Nolan isn’t retiring anytime soon and isn’t willing to put an expiration date on his filmmaking career.
Additionally, over at the Happy. Sad. Confused. podcast, Nolan also talked about his new film, “Oppenheimer,” and the choice to cast Josh Hartnett in a prominent role. While many have questioned Hartnett’s career choices, stemming from his time as a heartthrob back in the late-‘90s/early-‘00s, the filmmaker believes Hartnett is doing some interesting things in recent years.
“I met with Josh and if I recall, he was a young actor whose work I was very interested in,” Nolan said. “It never got that far…I had an initial conversation with him but he had read my brother’s script for ‘The Prestige’ at the time and was more interested in getting involved with that,” he continued. “So it never went further than that.”
He added, “I think over the last few years he’s done some really interesting things and really looked to stretch himself. So I was really pretty excited to get him to come and play Ernest Lawrence. I think he does a really great job in the film.”
“Oppenheimer” is in theaters now. You can see the full discussions with Nolan below:
