Christopher Nolan’s next movie will be released by Universal, moving away from his longtime collaborators at Warner Bros.

• READ MORE: ‘Tenet’ review: time-travelling thriller from the king of cerebral blockbusters

The director’s next film, centres around the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s involvement in the development of the atom bomb. It will be financed and distributed by Universal.

According to Deadline, the film will begin production in early 2022, with Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy rumoured to be involved.

Almost every film by Nolan since 2002’s Insomnia has been released with Warner Bros. Their partnership included The Dark Knight trilogy, Dunkirk, Inception and Tenet, while Warner Bros handled the international release of The Prestige and Interstellar.

Nolan’s decision to switch to Universal comes after the director criticised Warner Bros. over their plans to release their 2021 film slate simultaneously on streaming service HBO Max.

In a statement at the time, Nolan said: “Some of our industry’s biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service.

“Warner Bros. had an incredible machine for getting a filmmaker’s work out everywhere, both in theatres and in the home, and they are dismantling it as we speak. They don’t even understand what they’re losing. Their decision makes no economic sense, and even the most casual Wall Street investor can see the difference between disruption and dysfunction.”

Nolan’s last film, Tenet, was released in cinemas only in August 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. The film grossed $363million globally, which at the time was the highest since the pandemic began.

Warner Bros. has stated it will return to a traditional cinema releases in 2022.