Christopher Nolan thinks one thing may scupper Oppenheimer’s Oscar chances

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer has convinced fans that this is the movie for which he will finally win a much-deserved Oscar – but the man himself is a little more careful about his own expectations.

Despite its glowing critical reception and $950million (£761m) sweep at the box office – comfortably placing it in the respected filmmaker’s top three biggest commercial successes – the British-born writer and director reckons there is something that may make an Academy Award harder to net.

Nolan, 53, is of course the man behind films like Dunkirk, Inception and The Dark Knight trilogy, and has so far been nominated for five Oscars, spread across the directing, writing and best picture categories. He has yet to triumph.

But he doesn’t shy away from admitting he would love to win with his epic period film about the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, played by frequent collaborator Cillian Murphy, and supported by a starry cast including Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr. and Florence Pugh.

‘We don’t really think about awards when we’re making the films,’ he told Metro.co.uk in Los Angeles, ahead of its home entertainment release.

‘I don’t think you can, particularly if you’re looking to reach a broad audience and put the film out at the best time of year for example, which is the summer.’

Filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is the film fans hope will net him an Oscar or two (Picture: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures)

On set with actors Emily Blunt as Kitty and J. Robert Oppenheimer (Picture: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures)

Murphy has collaborated with Nolan for 20 years now, with Oppenheimer his first lead role for the director (Picture: Universal Pictures)

In Nolan’s opinion, that release time – one he has traditionally favoured, and July especially, as with Oppenheimer – is ‘never a strategic thing to do if you’re interested in winning awards’.

But that’s not to say he’s not eager to land what is often considered the industry’s highest accolade.

‘It’d be marvellous to win Oscars for the film, it’d be a dream come true, it’d be thrilling,’ he admitted.

‘But it’s not something that’s ever on our mind while we’re actually making the film because it’s so tough to get a film done and to get it out there in the marketplace that can work for an audience – that requires all of your attention and all of your focus. You can’t take your eye off that ball at any point.’

Nolan has worked alongside his wife and professional partner Emma Thomas, 51, to produce every one of his feature films since his debut in 1998 with Following.

Nolan has called the idea of winning an Oscar ‘a dream come true’, but said it’s not what they think about while making a movie (Picture: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures)

All of his films since 1998 have been co-produced by his wife, Emma Thomas (Picture: Samir Hussein/WireImage)

She confirmed to Metro.co.uk that he’s ‘already desperate to get back to work’ on his next project, the details of which have not been breathed anywhere yet, despite the wishful James Bond rumours.

How does he approach trying to follow up Oppenheimer’s success and the pressure to do even better with the next movie?

‘I think you can’t worry too much about the relationship of one film and on to the next. I get bored very quickly, and I like to keep working, so it’s exciting to think about what’s next,’ he shared.

Nolan certainly doesn’t take the reaction to Oppenheimer for granted though – despite the popularity and good standing of his previous films – revealing that the whole team has been ‘thrilled’ with its triumph.

Oppenheimer wowed audiences with its special effects, which were created practically rather than digitally (Picture: Universal Pictures)

The film was a big challenge as it covered a 60-year timespan onscreen (Picture: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures)

It also unfolds in non-linear fashion, over two separate timelines (Picture: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures)

‘But you certainly wouldn’t go to the next project hoping to replicate that kind of success – I mean, we didn’t foresee this at all. We didn’t go into Oppenheimer thinking it would make the money that it’s made, so you never quite know what’s going to happen.’

For Nolan, the toughest challenge on Oppenheimer for him and Thomas as producers was ‘shockingly’ keeping the film in budget – despite it costing $100m (£80.1m).

‘There’s a lot to get on screen in a period film covering 60 years. Each department had to really be smart and efficient about how they’re going to do it. And I think from a producing point of view, that’s always a huge challenge, because you’re trusting people to not make mistakes.

‘There’s enough money there if everything goes according to plan, the problem is things don’t always. For us as producers, it’s always a bit tricky to go in without too much headroom or too much of a safety net.’

Luckily, it went swimmingly, with Nolan delighted by how well his different department heads tackled the budget challenges, meaning that in his opinion they ‘really got an enormous amount on screen for what we had’ – all seen in a making-of documentary among the special features available with the film’s home release.

Even with a $100m budget, Nolan and Thomas didn’t have a ‘safety net’ for errors (Picture: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures)

Nolan with Oppenheimer department heads (from L) Jaime Leigh McIntosh (hair), Scott Fisher (SFX), Richard King (sound), Ellen Mirojnick (costume), Andrew Jackson (VFX), Ruth de Jong (production design), Ludwig Goransson (composer), Thomas, Luisa Abel (make-up/prosthetics) and Jennifer Lame (editor) (Picture: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages)

From Thomas’s point of view, she had a fair amount of anxiety over the finished product and how it was going to work in the cutting room and ‘as an experience for audiences’.

‘When I read the script, and I knew it was going to be three hours long, I was not entirely sure whether that was going to be as exciting as it then ended up being,’ she confessed.

‘But Chris always approaches every film very much as an audience member, he makes films that he would like to see, he’s always got a very, very keen idea of how the experience is going to work for audiences.

‘I think that it probably wasn’t until I actually saw the film for the first time that I really understood that oh my God, of course you knew what you were doing!’

It’s easy to assume that the producing powerhouses, who have been married since 1997 and also have four children together, barely have time to do anything else when they are working on films – as they have been, consistently, for over 25 years.

However, they do make the effort to strive for balance for the sake of their family and their film sets.

Thomas admitted she had doubts about how the film would work until she saw it for the first time (Picture: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures)

‘Working together on these films is a huge benefit in terms of we both completely understand what the other’s going through. And we also remind each other to draw a line under it at the end of the day – or try to – and not bring everything home,’ Nolan revealed.

He considers himself ‘very, very lucky’ to work with Thomas, but insisted that they try ‘not to talk about work all the time when we’re at home’, and instead strive for ‘a bit of a distinction there’.

For Nolan, Thomas has also backed him up in his decision to take weekends off during filming.

‘I don’t do six-day work weeks, which some people do on location, because I think you do need time to just recharge and I need time to be able to think about what I shot last week and prepare for the week ahead,’ he explained.

Although Thomas acknowledged that they have ‘no lives outside of shooting’, she reckons that post-production is ‘the most fun’ stage of the process – and certainly for her.

‘I, as a producer, am not in the cutting room the whole time whereas Chris is, you know, crazed! And it’s where it’s all coming together, you’ve done the hard work. Then we do get to relax.’

A ‘crazed’ Nolan (in his wife/co-producer’s words) working with Jennifer Lame on Oppenheimer’s edit (Picture: Universal Pictures)

That often means a family holiday, which it was this year – and one that was particularly fantastic ‘because [Oppenheimer] was doing well, and that was wonderful’.

The most challenging part of working with her husband for Thomas is that it can be tricky ‘to get perspective on things because you’re in it 100% of the time’.

‘Being able to step back and take the 30,000-foot view is sometimes a little bit difficult, although we’re pretty good between the two of us [at] sort of looking at each other and saying, “Well, no, you’re quite worried about that. But I think…”’

She’s satisfied that that is one of the marks of their partnership working ‘really well’ – coupled with their ability to have ‘very honest conversations’.

‘I think all the positives outweigh the negatives, I’ll put it that way!’ she laughed.

The filmmaking dream team of Nolan and Thomas have ‘very honest conversations’, according to her (Picture: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages)

Audiences have come to see Christopher Nolan as an intellectual and sincere filmmaker, given the often complicated, non-linear nature of his movies – and perhaps even consider him quite grave – but to Thomas, this is the biggest misconception about him and their work together.

‘People don’t think of him as being funny or they think of him as being very serious, and they think of the films as being serious. I find them very funny!’

‘I think the most of them have some pretty funny moments. And he is very funny. Like, he’s not as deadly serious as everyone imagines him to be,’ she shared.

Nolan is reluctant to comment on what he thinks the biggest misconception is about himself and his films due to the ‘great connections’ he’s had with audiences over the years and especially with Oppenheimer.

You may think Christopher Nolan isn’t funny, or his films, but Emma Thomas would beg to differ (Picture: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages)

The writer-director-producer is especially delighted by the number of young people who have seen Oppenheimer multiple times (Picture: Universal Pictures)

‘Particularly with the number of young people who’ve gone to see it multiple times and really watch the film in the spirit that was intended. I think it’d be churlish to complain about misconceptions.’

‘Certainly, as far as the work goes, I think I’ve been very fortunate that people have responded to the work largely in the way that we intended it,’ he added.

Let’s hope for the Nolans – and their sizable fan base – that come January, that results in a clutch of Oscar nominations – and a statuette (or two) in their hands in March.

Oppenheimer is available now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray™ and DVD to download and keep.

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The filmmaker’s latest triumph is now available to watch at home.