20 Things You Didn't Know About Christopher Nolan

Though there's no doubt that Nolan's sheer talent would've made him a successful filmmaker regardless, he nevertheless got a major nudge from the legendary Steven Soderbergh.

The director loved Nolan's Memento, and was instrumental in him being hired by Warner Bros. for 2002's Insomnia remake, the success of which eventually caused the studio to hire Nolan to helm Batman Begins. Soderbergh said:

"When Nolan became interested in Insomnia and word got back to me from [agent] Dan Aloni that he couldn't get a meeting at Warner Bros. and that they wouldn't meet with him to talk about it, I said that's ridiculous...I called the person who wouldn't meet with him and said you need to sit down with this guy. Whether it's this project or something else, you need to meet this guy. You need to talk to him. Turns out he has the meeting, and it was a total love fest. He goes and makes Insomnia and begins his relationship with Warner Bros. So the only thing I did was get him in the room."

Soderbergh might be modest about his contributions, but it's safe to say that without his intervention, Nolan most certainly wouldn't have gone on to helm the Dark Knight trilogy, and his career could've taken a wholly more modest path.

20 years later, the pair remain friends, even if Nolan takes half-joking exception to Soderbergh's exploration of digital filmmaking techniques.