Interviews - Cast and Crew
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February 2023
OPPENHEIMER FROM BIOGRAPHY TO BLOCKBUSTER: CHRISTOPHER NOLAN AND EMMA THOMAS IN CONVERSATION WITH KAI BIRD (October 11, 2023 6:30 pm ET)
https://www.gc.cuny.edu/events/oppenhei ... n-kai-bird
Reserve for livestream here: https://gc-cuny-edu.zoom.us/webinar/reg ... IPxyBkUXcw#/
https://www.gc.cuny.edu/events/oppenhei ... n-kai-bird
Reserve for livestream here: https://gc-cuny-edu.zoom.us/webinar/reg ... IPxyBkUXcw#/
So just finished listening to Chris and Emma with Kai Bird at CUNY - here were some great takeaways:
1. Chris name dropped Tacita Dean (sculpter) quite a bit a personal friend and influence
2. Chris did most of the screenplay over Spring and Summer of 21 - when he got stuck, he took a road trip with Magnus to Los Alamos. Connection helped him get going again.
3. A LOT of reference to the Howard Hughes screenplay. He referred to it as helping him structure Oppie. I'm worried we may never see this film simply because I think, based on what he said, he may have co-opted a lot of it into Oppie's "prismatic approach."
4. Chris mentioned he started off as a script reader - I hadn't heard him mention this before
5. Chris spent a chunk of quarantine in a house in London with Jonah, both writing from what the context seemed. He showed Jonah the first 30 pages of Oppie.
6. Chris gave a nod to Taylor Swift for basically making moves to upend the movie business by doing a deal directly with AMC. She's already making waves, according to him.
7. Dropped a reference to Kendal Roy - Nolan is a confirmed Succession watcher and that made my day lol
8. The first draft of the screenplay was longer - not a lot here but he was asked why we didn't see childhood Oppie - and I think his answer was interesting in that he mentioned that biographies can lean heavily on the influence childhood/parents for character's development and can be very reductive. He narrowed it down to the poison apple, but wanted to see Oppie as a more rounded and developing character.
9. Chris mentioned listening to a LOT of music when he writes, namely classical and film scores - and that music helps him return to the mood/moment when he comes back to a piece. Basically using music as a way to jump back in time. Love it.
10. Discussed the difficulty of balancing the unavoidable nihalism of this film with having to shoot the energy and excitement of the oppie team making new discoveries and not realizing the horror of their creation, and that the ending of the film took quite a bit of editing, including tooling around with Ludwig's score, to get the right feeling to land.
Hopefully they'll put this discussion up on youtube, etc. Highly recommend people search it out. One of the better interviews on this film for sure.
1. Chris name dropped Tacita Dean (sculpter) quite a bit a personal friend and influence
2. Chris did most of the screenplay over Spring and Summer of 21 - when he got stuck, he took a road trip with Magnus to Los Alamos. Connection helped him get going again.
3. A LOT of reference to the Howard Hughes screenplay. He referred to it as helping him structure Oppie. I'm worried we may never see this film simply because I think, based on what he said, he may have co-opted a lot of it into Oppie's "prismatic approach."
4. Chris mentioned he started off as a script reader - I hadn't heard him mention this before
5. Chris spent a chunk of quarantine in a house in London with Jonah, both writing from what the context seemed. He showed Jonah the first 30 pages of Oppie.
6. Chris gave a nod to Taylor Swift for basically making moves to upend the movie business by doing a deal directly with AMC. She's already making waves, according to him.
7. Dropped a reference to Kendal Roy - Nolan is a confirmed Succession watcher and that made my day lol
8. The first draft of the screenplay was longer - not a lot here but he was asked why we didn't see childhood Oppie - and I think his answer was interesting in that he mentioned that biographies can lean heavily on the influence childhood/parents for character's development and can be very reductive. He narrowed it down to the poison apple, but wanted to see Oppie as a more rounded and developing character.
9. Chris mentioned listening to a LOT of music when he writes, namely classical and film scores - and that music helps him return to the mood/moment when he comes back to a piece. Basically using music as a way to jump back in time. Love it.
10. Discussed the difficulty of balancing the unavoidable nihalism of this film with having to shoot the energy and excitement of the oppie team making new discoveries and not realizing the horror of their creation, and that the ending of the film took quite a bit of editing, including tooling around with Ludwig's score, to get the right feeling to land.
Hopefully they'll put this discussion up on youtube, etc. Highly recommend people search it out. One of the better interviews on this film for sure.
Posts: 1439
Joined:
October 2019
Terrific stuff! thanks for postingu2aerofan wrote: ↑October 11th, 2023, 8:21 pmSo just finished listening to Chris and Emma with Kai Bird at CUNY - here were some great takeaways:
1. Chris name dropped Tacita Dean (sculpter) quite a bit a personal friend and influence
2. Chris did most of the screenplay over Spring and Summer of 21 - when he got stuck, he took a road trip with Magnus to Los Alamos. Connection helped him get going again.
3. A LOT of reference to the Howard Hughes screenplay. He referred to it as helping him structure Oppie. I'm worried we may never see this film simply because I think, based on what he said, he may have co-opted a lot of it into Oppie's "prismatic approach."
4. Chris mentioned he started off as a script reader - I hadn't heard him mention this before
5. Chris spent a chunk of quarantine in a house in London with Jonah, both writing from what the context seemed. He showed Jonah the first 30 pages of Oppie.
6. Chris gave a nod to Taylor Swift for basically making moves to upend the movie business by doing a deal directly with AMC. She's already making waves, according to him.
7. Dropped a reference to Kendal Roy - Nolan is a confirmed Succession watcher and that made my day lol
8. The first draft of the screenplay was longer - not a lot here but he was asked why we didn't see childhood Oppie - and I think his answer was interesting in that he mentioned that biographies can lean heavily on the influence childhood/parents for character's development and can be very reductive. He narrowed it down to the poison apple, but wanted to see Oppie as a more rounded and developing character.
9. Chris mentioned listening to a LOT of music when he writes, namely classical and film scores - and that music helps him return to the mood/moment when he comes back to a piece. Basically using music as a way to jump back in time. Love it.
10. Discussed the difficulty of balancing the unavoidable nihalism of this film with having to shoot the energy and excitement of the oppie team making new discoveries and not realizing the horror of their creation, and that the ending of the film took quite a bit of editing, including tooling around with Ludwig's score, to get the right feeling to land.
Hopefully they'll put this discussion up on youtube, etc. Highly recommend people search it out. One of the better interviews on this film for sure.
Posts: 285
Joined:
April 2023
Did they give any indication on when that recording will be available? I assume it'll be a few days, but curious if they were more specific.
Unfortunately no. I'll keep an eye out.physicshistoryguy wrote: ↑October 12th, 2023, 12:27 amDid they give any indication on when that recording will be available? I assume it'll be a few days, but curious if they were more specific.
Just an update - I clearly have NOT been paying attention - Nolan did a great amount of work with Tacita Dean and the Film Heritage foundation, including several public events you can dig up on YouTube. Here's a link to more info of their connection: https://scroll.in/reel/874028/christoph ... ful-mediumu2aerofan wrote: ↑October 11th, 2023, 8:21 pmSo just finished listening to Chris and Emma with Kai Bird at CUNY - here were some great takeaways:
1. Chris name dropped Tacita Dean (sculpter) quite a bit a personal friend and influence
2. Chris did most of the screenplay over Spring and Summer of 21 - when he got stuck, he took a road trip with Magnus to Los Alamos. Connection helped him get going again.
3. A LOT of reference to the Howard Hughes screenplay. He referred to it as helping him structure Oppie. I'm worried we may never see this film simply because I think, based on what he said, he may have co-opted a lot of it into Oppie's "prismatic approach."
4. Chris mentioned he started off as a script reader - I hadn't heard him mention this before
5. Chris spent a chunk of quarantine in a house in London with Jonah, both writing from what the context seemed. He showed Jonah the first 30 pages of Oppie.
6. Chris gave a nod to Taylor Swift for basically making moves to upend the movie business by doing a deal directly with AMC. She's already making waves, according to him.
7. Dropped a reference to Kendal Roy - Nolan is a confirmed Succession watcher and that made my day lol
8. The first draft of the screenplay was longer - not a lot here but he was asked why we didn't see childhood Oppie - and I think his answer was interesting in that he mentioned that biographies can lean heavily on the influence childhood/parents for character's development and can be very reductive. He narrowed it down to the poison apple, but wanted to see Oppie as a more rounded and developing character.
9. Chris mentioned listening to a LOT of music when he writes, namely classical and film scores - and that music helps him return to the mood/moment when he comes back to a piece. Basically using music as a way to jump back in time. Love it.
10. Discussed the difficulty of balancing the unavoidable nihalism of this film with having to shoot the energy and excitement of the oppie team making new discoveries and not realizing the horror of their creation, and that the ending of the film took quite a bit of editing, including tooling around with Ludwig's score, to get the right feeling to land.
Hopefully they'll put this discussion up on youtube, etc. Highly recommend people search it out. One of the better interviews on this film for sure.
Remember in 2020 I was listening to an interview with one of the David O Russell producers(I don't remember the name unfortunately) and the interviewer was asked which filmmaker you would like to work with? And he said Nolan. He continued saying that Nolan was working for him as a script reader where he was reading indie scripts. And script readers were paid X amount for 3 scripts where they had to write notes on them.
He also said that Nolan himself had written a script that nobody wanted to produce. That one was Memento. He then said that he takes no credit for producing the script but he recognised that this guy had talent and got Nolan in contact with other people who eventually financed Memento.
He eventually mentioned that it would be a nice cycle if they could work together.
If you come back across it sometime that would be great to hear!Pit180 wrote: ↑October 12th, 2023, 12:52 pmRemember in 2020 I was listening to an interview with one of the David O Russell producers(I don't remember the name unfortunately) and the interviewer was asked which filmmaker you would like to work with? And he said Nolan. He continued saying that Nolan was working for him as a script reader where he was reading indie scripts. And script readers were paid X amount for 3 scripts where they had to write notes on them.
He also said that Nolan himself had written a script that nobody wanted to produce. That one was Memento. He then said that he takes no credit for producing the script but he recognised that this guy had talent and got Nolan in contact with other people who eventually financed Memento.
He eventually mentioned that it would be a nice cycle if they could work together.
