It was "The Dark Knight" trilogy that launched Christopher Nolan into the stratosphere, giving him the kind of latitude, budgets and creative freedom most filmmakers don’t get in the studio system. But it’s clear he’s done with dealing with men in tights. While he put his name on "Man Of Steel" as an executive producer, he won’t be involved in the DC Comics films going forward, and as he tells Time Out Chicago, it’s unlikely he’ll go back to that world.
"I think I had a great experience with the superhero genre and got to explore a lot of things, but it was a good decade of my life and I find it hard to imagine returning to it. But never say never," Nolan said. And while he humbly won’t admit to raising the bar of the genre, Nolan says that was his goal in doing the Batman movies.
"It’s not really for me to say, but it was the ambition for the films, definitely. When you work in any genre, you’re looking to transcend it. You don’t make a genre film wanting to make a re-tread or parody or satire. You’re working in a particular constraint but you’re looking to force that box to be a little wider," he explained.
Whether or not he does the same for the sci-fi genre with "Interstellar" is up for debate. The early reviews have certainly been mixed (read ours here), but Nolan worked hard to make the film, a former project developed for Steven Spielberg, his own. And part of that task was heavily rewriting the script by his brother Jonah Nolan, which included changing Jessica Chastain‘s character from a man to a woman. “I am playing a woman who is intelligent and emotional and active in participating in the world around her, but yet fragile at the same time. She’s not the prop of a man,” the actress told UK Screen about her role as Murph.
Below, you can check out the first clip from "Interstellar" courtesy of Time, a lighter scene taking place before Matthew McConaughey blasts off into outer space. After that, a handful of video interviews with Nolan about the film, and the Time magazine cover featuring the director and cast. "Interstellar" opens wide on November 7th.
