Culture news “It was painful” Christopher Nolan doesn't want to see this Martin Scorsese film. He still hasn't digested the news
Advertisement
Christopher Nolan can console himself in 2024 by saying that his Oppenheimer film will dominate Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon head and shoulders. However, he still refuses to see a particular film by the American filmmaker. He still hasn't digested seeing a project slip through his fingers.
Advertisement
Oppenheimer versus Killers of the Flower Moon
Everything has been going well for several years for Christopher Nolan, who has become one of the most influential and bankable directors in Hollywood. There are only a handful in this profession who can boast of attracting spectators to theaters thanks to their name alone. Even the great Steven Spielberg no longer stirs up crowds. West Side Story (2021) and The Fablemans (2023 in France) were failures at the cinema. Martin Scorsese was not much better received by spectators who did not rush to see his latest creation.
Killers of the Flower Moon with Leonardo DiCaprio, Lady Gladstone and Robert de Niro in the main roles is akin to a cold shower for Apple TV+ and Paramount Pictures who are co-producing the film. With a blockbuster budget amounting to 200 million US dollars, it only collected 157 million at the box office. However, the press (93% on RottenTomatoes) and the general public in general (84% on RottenTomatoes) praised the film, but nothing helped.
The 96th Academy Awards also revealed the gap that now separates Christopher Nolan and Martin Scorsese. Nominated in 13 categories, Oppenheimer was crowned 7 times by his peers : Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.), Best Music, Best Cinematography and Best Editing. Unlike Killers of the Flower Moon which, despite 7 nominations, left the high mass of Hollywood cinema empty-handed.
Aviator by Christopher Nolan
Our story between C. Nolan and M. Scorsese dates back to the early 2000s, well before the release of the film Aviator with Leonardo DiCaprio in 2005. At that time, the British director behind Tenet and Interstellar was working on a biopic dedicated to Howard Hughes ( aerospace engineer, business mogul, film producer, investor, philanthropist and pilot) with Jim Carrey. Alas, the mind behind Taxi Driver (1976) beat Christopher Nolan by first finalizing his screenplay under the nose of the latter who was “forced” to abandon months of work. He returned to this period of his life with Variety end of 2023 and declared:
It was emotionally painful to not be able to do anything with what I had spent so much time on. -Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolan has never seen Aviator and he refuses to see it.