Lots of Batman & Nolan tidbits
Great article in the New York Times reveals that Nolan turned down TROY, considered directing THE AVIATOR and has shot all of THE DARK KNIGHT by himself with no second unit in site! Lots more inside...
I don't usually post about these kind of promotional articles found in publications like the New York Times but hey, it's about Christopher Nolan... my favourite director working today and a rare helmer these days who I can honestly say I've become obsessed with each and everyone of his movies and I never get tired of watching any of them. And that obsession might not be as much of a coincidence as you may think because if you look at all four of his movies so far, they are ALL about obsession. That is the predominant theme of his cinema.
Anyway, I'm waffling now. Here's some tidbits from a great article that YOU SHOULD READ... Post his first studio movie Insomnia, Christopher Nolan read and considered directing John Logan's script for The Aviator before Martin Scorsese got the gig. Read what I said above... this is a guy who is obsessed with obsession, and there was no one more obsessive than Howard Hughes. That movie could have been fascinating but I imagine smaller and more of a character piece without the grandiose of Martin Scorsese's picture, which I really enjoyed by the way. Here's a real surprise. Nolan turned down TROY! WB originally pitched the project to the director whilst Nolan was putting together his pitch for what would end up being Batman Begins. I'm struggling to imagine what a Troy movie from Nolan would have looked like, it sounds completely against the type of movie he would make and that's probably why he turned it down. Would have been fascinating though and probably would have included the Gods, which was just a must for me. Production designer Nathan Crowley says... Ive tried to unclutter the Gotham we created on the last film...Gotham is in chaos. We keep blowing up stuff. So we can keep our images clean,. I must say from the trailers Gotham does look awful different, a lot more epic feeling. Christopher Nolan directed EVERYTHING himself. No second unit... how cool is that? Man I hope Nolan does these movies for the rest of his life. I'm pretty certain he will stop at three... his trilogy, especially with The Dark Knight and Batman 3 being two movies expected to be almost like parts 1 and 2. Think The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.