20 Things You Didn't Know About Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan is without question one of the most successful and celebrated filmmakers of the last 20 years, enjoying a meteoric rise from his micro-budget debut to helming colossal Hollywood tentpoles in a matter of just seven short years.

With ten critically and commercially successful films to his name with a near-unprecedented sense of practical scope, Nolan is one of the few "brand" directors that even casual audiences will reliably turn out for.

And so, his hugely anticipated upcoming sci-fi action-thriller Tenet is being hailed as the film that might "save" the flagging movie industry at present. Time will tell if that's the case, of course.

Despite his exuberant filmmaking chops, however, Nolan is a quiet and intensely private person who doesn't give much away about his personal life, such that to most observers he remains a figure of enticing mystery.

These are the fascinating tidbits of both his life and career well worth knowing, providing a glimpse into what makes one of Hollywood's most innovative and consistent filmmakers tick...

Though Nolan can command budgets north of $200 million these days, his 1998 directorial debut couldn't have been much more modest.

Nolan's first feature, Following, was effectively a "no-budget" film, completed for a mere $6,000 with the director writing the film to be as cheap as possible to produce.

This ranged from having his friends and family work on the film for free and even lend their locations for the shoot, to having the cast extensively rehearse scenes to avoid wasting expensive 16mm film stock, and using only available light.

Nolan ended up shooting and editing the film on weekends for roughly a year as he and his cast and crew had regular day-jobs, which in turn allowed him to spread the cost of the production out.

Following ultimately became enough of a cult fave that Nolan was able to secure a comparatively beefy $9 million budget for his sophomore feature, Memento.