Christopher Nolan wants to make a horror movie: “It’s a very interesting genre”
Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan has revealed he hopes to make a horror movie in the future.
Nolan is nominated for ‘Best Director’ at the upcoming Academy Awards, set to take place on March 10th in Los Angeles. His latest creation, Oppenheimer, has received a total of 13 nominations, including ‘Best Picture’, and ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’. Cillian Murphy is also up for the ‘Best Actor’ prize.
However, Nolan is open to taking his career in a new direction with his next project. Speaking at London’s British Film Institute on February 15th, the director said (via Variety): “Oppenheimer has elements of horror in it definitely, as I think is appropriate to the subject matter. I think horror films are very interesting because they depend on very cinematic devices, it really is about a visceral response to things and so, at some point, I’d love to make a horror film.”
He added: “But I think a really good horror film requires a really exceptional idea. And those are few and far between. So I haven’t found a story that lends itself to that.”
Elaborating on horror, as a genre, Nolan added: “But I think it’s a very interesting genre from a cinematic point of view. It’s also one of the few genres where the studios make a lot of these films, and they are films that have a lot of bleakness, a lot of abstraction. They have a lot of the qualities that Hollywood is generally very resistant to putting in films, but that’s a genre where it’s allowable.”
Nolan’s speech at the BFI occurred after he was recently honoured with the ‘BFI Fellowship’ award. In a statement, they recognised his “extraordinary achievements and enormous contribution to cinema as one of the world’s most innovative and influential directors.”
Oppenheimer star Murphy had the privilege of handing the prize to Nolan and said of his collaborator: “It is a privilege of mine to know him, and to have worked with him so closely over the last 20 years. I have the utmost respect for him as an artist and a human being.”
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