Christopher Nolan is likely one of the hottest and roundly revered administrators working in Hollywood right now. Not solely does he make acclaimed epics like “Dunkirk,” however his films are additionally remarkably widespread. “Oppenheimer” made practically $1 billion and gained Greatest Image on the Oscars. That mixing of economic success and business accolades is extraordinarily uncommon. However Nolan wasn’t at all times an A-lister who might decide the initiatives he needed primarily at will. Working example: Regardless that he is making “The Odyssey” as we communicate, he beforehand flirted with one other Greek mythology film that ended up going to a special director.
Not too long ago, author David Goyer spoke with the “Completely happy Unhappy Confused” podcast in honor of the twentieth anniversary of “Batman Begins,” which Nolan directed. “I had heard that Chris could be creating a brand new Batman film and I keep in mind telling my agent, ‘Nicely, it is by no means going to get made,” Goyer mentioned. “None of these guys might get it made.”
To Goyer’s level, many writers had been making an attempt to get a “Batman” film off the bottom at Warner Bros. after the failure of Joel Schumacher’s “Batman & Robin.” Nolan turned the person to make it occur, however that was solely after, based on Goyer, he was supplied DC’s beloved superhero as a comfort prize for not attending to direct 2004’s “Troy.” This is what he needed to say about it:
“The irony is that it seems that Batman was a comfort prize for Chris as a result of he had been creating ‘Troy.’ Then, in some unspecified time in the future, ‘Troy’ was shifted away and given to [Wolfgang Petersen]. I feel Wolfgang Petersen had been creating ‘Batman vs. Superman,’ so I feel they did a swap. That was meant to be the comfort prize, I suppose.”
Christopher Nolan directing Troy would have reshaped his profession
There’s a complete lot to unpack there, however let’s begin with the truth that sure, Wolfgang Petersen was slated to direct an exceedingly darkish model of “Batman vs. Superman” written by Andrew Kevin Walker (“Seven”) within the early 2000s, greater than a decade earlier than Zack Snyder made it a actuality with 2016’s “Batman v Superman: Daybreak of Justice.” As Goyer tells it, Warner Bros. let that model go and Petersen ended up directing “Troy,” which starred Brad Pitt in a retelling of Homer’s “The Iliad.”
In the meantime Nolan, who was coming off of “Memento” and “Insomnia,” was then supplied the possibility to get a brand new “Batman” film off the bottom. A 2013 article from Deadline revealed that “Nolan was going to direct ‘Troy’ (launched in 2004) however wasn’t feeling it,” and since he’d at all times had an curiosity in Batman, he pitched his tackle the franchise to WB executives. The remaining is historical past, with 2005’s “Batman Begins” fully reinventing the superhero on the massive display screen.
That paved the best way for 2008’s “The Darkish Knight,” which stays one of the crucial acclaimed mainstream blockbusters of all time, in addition to 2012’s “The Darkish Knight Rises,” which was, for a time, the highest-grossing DC film ever. Nevertheless, it would not fairly sound like, primarily based on the Deadline report, that “Batman” was in any means a comfort prize for Nolan. In any occasion, it’s fascinating to think about a world the place he directed “Troy,” which was certainly a giant film, as a substitute of doing “Batman Begins,” as a result of it could have modified your entire trajectory of his profession.
In the meantime, Nolan is at present filming “The Odyssey” for Common Footage, a Greek epic with a stacked forged that can be primarily based on the works of Homer (to simplify, it is primarily a sequel to the occasions of “Troy”). Nevertheless critical his flirtation with “Troy” was all these years in the past, it is fascinating that it is all come full circle not directly greater than 20 years later.
“The Odyssey” is ready to hit theaters on July 17, 2026.