The movie Steven Soderbergh called the cinematic equivalent of a mic drop
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After 24 years, 12 films, and three Batmans, Christopher Nolan finally won the Academy Award for ‘Best Director’ in 2024. The movie that got him there? Oppenheimer, his epic re-telling of the life of J Robert Oppenheimer, the man who spearheaded the movement that gave the world the atomic bomb.
With Cillian Murphy in the lead role and support from the likes of Robert Downey Jr, Emily Blunt, and Florence Pugh, Oppenheimer cleaned up at almost every major awards ceremony and at the box office, grossing a total of $977million. It also created the cinema-going event of the year, although half the credit for that does have to go to Barbie.
The success of this movie felt to many, like Nolan finally reaching his full potential. For years, he’d been touted as one of the great visionaries of his time, just without the awards to back those claims up. One man who was thrilled for the British director was Steven Soderbergh, who had long been a keen observer of his work. “There was a sense that he’s been working his way toward this film,” he told Variety. “It required all the tools and experience that he’d had up to that point to pull something like this off. This was the cinematic equivalent of a mic drop.”
Soderbergh, himself a ‘Best Director’ winner for the movie Traffic, is more than just a fan of Nolan’s work. When a certain Warner Bros executive wasn’t keen on the film Memento, Soderbergh stepped in to reassure them. “I called that executive and I said, ‘Take the meeting. You’ve got to take the meeting,’” Soderbergh said in a different Variety interview. “He goes, ‘But I didn’t like the movie.’ And I go, ‘Well, did you like the movie-making?’ And he goes, ‘Well, yeah, it’s brilliantly made.’ And I go, ‘Take the meeting.’” This is what eventually led to the greenlighting of Nolan’s third film, Insomnia.
One of the most surprising things about Oppenheimer is that it made so much money despite being an original idea. In an age where comic book adaptations, sequels, and reboots dominate, seeing a three-hour-long movie about the atomic bomb do so well was a breath of fresh air for everyone. Director Damian Chazelle (La La Land, First Man, Whiplash) knew that Oppenheimer would be make or break for this kind of story. “Before I even saw the film, it felt like one of those test-case scenarios,” he said. “All around the industry, a lot of people were saying, ‘This is not what the audience wants — it’s a bummer, and they just want escapism.’ And they were all wrong. So that makes its success all the sweeter.”
In his own words, Nolan couldn’t believe how lucky he got with the timing of Oppenheimer. “When you start making a film,” he said. “You’re two or three years out from when it’s going to be released, so you’re trying to hit a moving target as far as the interest of the audience. But sometimes you catch a wave and the story you’re telling is one people are waiting for.”
For his next project, Nolan will be working with Oppenheimer star Matt Damon and first-time collaborator Tom Holland. As revealed recently, Holland can’t disclose anything about the new picture, but did say he was “incredibly excited” to be working with Nolan. The film, which doesn’t even have a name yet, is due for release in July 2026.
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