In a new interview with “Interstellar” director Christopher Nolan and his scientific consultant and co-producer on the film, Kip Thorne, the artistic visionary and the decorated theoretical physicist sit down to discuss their partnership and how they worked through challenges like being unable to justify characters moving faster than the speed of light. (Apparently Nolan was attached to the idea.)
Thorne is the author of “Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy,” and a leading expert on the theory of relativity. He is largely to thank for the impressive verisimilitude of “Interstellar” that you’ve likely heard so much about. The movie might have made you cringe with its clichéd dialogue and melodramatic existentialism, but Nolan was commendably ambitious, and faithful to the science to boot. To really hammer home the Discovery Channel-esque angle, Thorne also published a book — “The Science of Interstellar,” with a foreword by Nolan, if you want to dig deeper beyond these ten minutes.
If it’s the film’s Hans Zimmer score that interests you, there’s also a new featurette on the collaboration between the composer and the director. The two experimented with some interesting tactics while writing; Nolan fed Zimmer the simple idea of a father and a son before clueing him in on the massive scope and sci-fi genre of his project, and the fact that the central relationship is actually between a father and daughter.
Watch the interview and the minidoc below. [Time/Slate]