Most of us were thrown off when Warner Bros. and Christopher Nolan announced a “Tenet” promotion within the popular battle royale video game “Fortnite.” The idea felt a little “How Do You Do Fellow Kids?” scene from “30 Rock“; seemingly a way to give his upcoming sci-fi action film some marketing exposure to a younger demographic that could support the movie. But it seems that Nolan has, at the very least, some genuine interest in video games– though, the recent headlines saying he hopes to make a video game seem a little overblown.
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Nolan recently spoke with The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley during an interview for Fandango to promote the home release of “Tenet.” The filmmaker espoused his interest in videogames and the broad theoretical idea of making one. However, Nolan had several caveats, and admitted his reluctance to jump feet-first into the video game industry. For one, he’s not interested in just licensing a title to a video game company and letting them do what they will. Nolan said he’d rather be involved in making a video game, but they’re so time-consuming, and his life is so consumed by film, that it seems doubtful, he would ever realistically have the time to really make one.
“Making films is complicated and takes a long time. Making video games is even more complicated and takes even longer,” Nolan told Keighley after admitting that he had talked to a videogame company at one point about developing an “Inception” game. “The way the video game industry works, it’s really tough. You don’t want to just be doing a licensed game, tying it into something, and using the brand established by the film. You don’t want it to just draft off the brand. You want it to be something great in its own right.”
While Nolan says making a game is “definitely something I’m interested in,” he ultimately says he’s dedicated his life to the pursuit of making cinema, aka don’t hold your breath. “My time and energy, I’ve just wound up devoting it all to film and just seeing how difficult that is, [so making a video game on top of that; it’s not something you’d ever take on lightly.”
Some have obviously interpreted that as Christopher Nolan hopes to make a video game, but if you watch the full interview and listen to how he describes himself as a pupil of cinema, continuing to learn about its “infinite possibilities,” and continuing to explore all the endless permutations of what you can do in editing, and how it affects the visual meaning of things, it feels pretty clear that the “I’ve dedicated my life to cinema” comment is the one that means the most here.
Considering that Nolan has dabbled with comic book movies in the past, it’s not inconceivable; yet, it seems like the director will focus on original movies for the foreseeable future.
Below is the full interview from Fandango’s YouTube channel.