10 Essential Movies Christopher Nolan Demands You See

4. The Man Who Would Be King

When speaking of the films which have influenced his own filmmaking career, Nolan said, "When I look at the films that have really influenced me, most of them are box office failures: Blade Runner, The Man Who Would Be King - a terrific movie - but there's no correlation between my favorite films and box office success." It's a sentiment that many movie lovers will share - you only have to look at the number of truly awful releases which clean up at the box office to understand the point Nolan is making about the lack of correlation between quality and financial success. John Huston's The Man Who Would Be King should have been both - Sean Connery and Michael Caine's presence on screen alone would certainly have convinced investors of a guaranteed return. Nolan has often collaborated with Michael Caine on his movies: it's possible that the director first became aware of the star in his youth, and The Man Who Would Be King may well have been the film which first got his attention.