Ooh, the girls are fighting. Christopher Nolan has decided to take his next film to Universal Pictures, backing up his criticism of Warner Bros. The film, which he wrote, is based on J. Robert Oppenheimer’s role in the development of the atom bomb. Per Deadline, the film has been green-lit to begin production early next year, though no cast members have been confirmed. Nolan will produce along with Emma Thomas for Syncopy Inc.
The film ends a longtime relationship between Nolan and Warner Bros., who have worked together on The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Dunkirk, and Tenet. While Tenet did get a theatrical release during the pre-vaccine pandemic, Nolan publicly took issue when WarnerMedia chief Jason Kilar moved 2021 films to a day-and-date release on HBO Max, helping pad subscriptions for the infant streamer. “It’s about what the French call droit moral,â€Â Nolan told the Washington Post of the decision last December. “Do they own it absolutely, because they paid for it or they financed it? And that is not a purely legalistic question; it’s a question of ethics as well. It’s a question of partnership and collaboration. They did not speak to those filmmakers. They did not consult them about what their plans were for their work. And I felt that somebody needed to point out that that wasn’t the right way to treat those filmmakers.â€