#Christopher Nolan Is Interested in Turning His Original Movies Into Video Games

Christopher Nolan has been one of the top directors in Hollywood for more than a decade now. The filmmaker has also garnered a reputation for being something of a film snob, who prizes the old-school traditions of watching films on the big screen and prefers to use film instead of digital video-making techniques. But Nolan is also perfectly willing to embrace alternative modes of storytelling. In an interview with games journalist Geoff Keighley, Nolan revealed that he would like to see his films adapted into video games, as long as the approach is fresh and not just a cash grab.

Would Chris Nolan ever want one of his films adapted into a game? Here’s what he said, part of our full conversation now on YouTube: https://t.co/rtevhycmAbpic.twitter.com/cmwII4OC4z

— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) December 21, 2020

“It’s definitely something I’m interested in. It’s an amazing world. You don’t want to just be doing a licensed game. You don’t want to just be tying into something and using the brand established by the film. Same way actually you don’t want to, when you do a film adaptation from a video game, you don’t want it to just draft off the brand. You want it to be something great.”

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This is not the first time Nolan has signaled his interest in the video game industry. Earlier this year, when the lockdown and social distancing measures were making it difficult to promote Nolan’s latest movie Tenet, the marketing team hit upon a novel method of using the immensely popular game Fortnite for some virtual cross-promotion. Three of Christopher Nolan’s biggest films, namely The Dark Knight, Inception, and The Prestige – were shown in the game’s Party Royale mode, along with the trailer for Tenet and appearances from the film’s cast.

Clearly, Nolan is well aware of the possibilities offered by the gaming industry. Of the filmmaker’s many action-adventure offerings, only Batman Begins got a video game adaptation, which got mixed reviews upon release. But it is Nolan’s original IP offerings that are begging for gaming adaptations.

The worlds of Inception, with its dreams-within-dreams structure, and Tenet, where time can flow backward, offer endless opportunities for some nifty video game mechanics where players can have first-hand experience of running around in other characters’ dreams or running back through time.

Perhaps Nolan’s newfound interest in the gaming industry is also partly brought about by his growing disillusionment with Hollywood. When Warner Bros. announced recently that all their movies will stream online at the same time as in theaters, Nolan was the first to openly and sharply criticize his long-time studio partners for their decision. The filmmaker later doubled down on his criticism even further, explaining that Warner’s tactics are questionable legally and morally.

“It’s about what the French call droit moral. [Does WarnerMedia] own [the film] absolutely, because they paid for it or they financed it? And that is not a purely legalistic question; it’s a question of ethics as well. It’s a question of partnership and collaboration. They did not speak to those filmmakers. They did not consult them about what their plans were for their work. And I felt that somebody needed to point out that that wasn’t the right way to treat those filmmakers.”

Topics: Video Games