Christopher Nolan Interview: Oppenheimer, IMAX, and Editing

As cinemas struggle to compete with the shifting tide of streamers, auteur filmmakers such as Oscar-winner Christopher Nolan stand at the forefront of what he calls the “gold standard” of moviemaking. While promoting Oppenheimer, his latest project with Cillian Murphy as the titular American physicist who headed secret weapons for the Manhattan Project, Collider’s Steve Weintraub spoke with the writer-director about his editing process and conviction behind his dedication to filming in IMAX. Oppenheimer is receiving a limited theatrical release that will allow audiences to experience Nolan’s vision the way he intended, with a run in IMAX 70mm film in select theaters, utilized to capture “the incredible disparity of scales” portrayed in the movie. As with his epics like Inception and Interstellar before, Oppenheimer explores morality and identity, this time through one of man’s greatest scientific achievements that posed the question, “But should we?” Joining Murphy on the explosive roster are Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, and Gary Oldman. In this one-on-one interview, which you can watch or read below, Nolan discusses his work’s influence over IMAX today and the limits he pushed with Oppenheimer, as well as why the director chose not to use CGI in a film that depicts the impact of a city-leveling nuclear weapon. He also discusses his editing process with returning collaborator Jennifer Lame, exactly how he was able to pull off practical explosions with VFX supervisor Andrew Jackson, and why, and the use of color and black and white to tell two converging stories. For interviews, movie reviews, and more visit FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL