Christopher Nolan Briefly Discusses ‘Interstellar’ Influences
When the name “Christopher Nolan” is attached to a project, anticipation immediately shoots into the stratosphere. That’s what happened last month when theMemento, InceptionandDark Knightdirectorrevealed the sci-fi filmInterstellarwould be his next movie. The film, which oncehad Steven Spielberg attached, is about “a heroic interstellar voyage to the furthest reaches of our scientific understanding” inspired by the theories of theoretical physicist, gravitational physicist and astrophysicistKip Thorne.Matthew McConaugheyis set to star.
Beyond those facts, little is known about the film, but new slivers of information will slowly come to light on the way to itsNovember 7, 2014 release date. The latest one is how Nolan framed his sci-fi film in regards to classics of the genre. Read his quote below.
Nolan was one of many filmmakers asked to reflect on the work of Stanley Kubrick byEntertainment Weekly, andNolan Fanspicked up the reference. They slyly asked if he was thinking about2001: A Space Odysseywhile preppingInterstellar:
I think anytime you look at science fiction in movies, there are key touchstones.Metropolis. Blade Runner. 2001. Whenever you’re talking about getting off the planet,2001is somewhat unavoidable. But there is only one2001. So you don’t want to get too near to that.
SoInterstellargoes off the planet, which seemed obvious from the title. But the fact that he’s going to try and avoid2001is interesting. What Nolan meant by that is slightly illuminated in another quote, where he talks about the differences between his work and Kubrick’s:
From a storytelling point of view, from a directing point of view, there is one thing I associate with what he does, which is calm. There is such an inherent calm and inherent trust of the one powerful image, that he makes me embarrassed with my own work, in terms of how many different shots, how many different sound effects, how many different things we’ll throw at an audience to make an impression. But with Kubrick, there is such a great trust of the one correct image to calmly explain something to audience. There can be some slowness to the editing. There’s nothing frenetic about it. It’s very simple. There’s a trust in simple storytelling and simple image making that actually takes massive confidence to try and emulate.
The EW article is all kinds of awesome, so definitely head there to check that out. Nolan is all over it, including discussing his first time seeing2001.
What do you think about Nolan’s claims that2001is unavoidable when making a sci-fi film? Do you think he’s short changing himself with the Kubrick comparison?
