Christopher Nolan Broke a Major Tradition While Making Tenet
It's been a week since the debut of the second trailer for Tenet, which provided fans with a bit [...]
It's been a week since the debut of the second trailer for Tenet, which provided fans with a bit more insight into Christopher Nolan's next blockbuster epic. If the footage we've seen thus far is any indication, Tenet will completely shatter fans' expectations, while also providing many of the characteristics that have become iconic with Nolan's movies. But according to a new interview, Nolan did break tradition in one very specific way for Tenet -- by not screening another movie that serves as inspiration for the project. As Nolan recently told Total Film (via GamesRadar), he didn't screen any James Bond movies for the cast of Tenet, which includes John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, and Elizabeth Debecki. As Nolan argued, those films are already so heavily ingrained in popular culture.
"Interestingly, this is one of the first films I've ever made where we didn't do any screenings," Nolan explained. "And the reason was, I think we all have the spy genre so in our bones and in our fingertips. I actually wanted to work from a memory and a feeling of that genre, rather than the specifics."
"This is definitely the longest period of time I've ever gone in my life without watching a James Bond film," Nolan added. "My love of the spy genre comes from the Bond franchise, and the Bond character very specifically."
"It's totally in my bones," Nolan continued. "I don't need to reference the movies and look at them again. It's about trying to re-engage with your childhood connection with those movies, with the feeling of what it's like to go someplace new, someplace fresh. It actually has to take them somewhere they haven't been before, and that's why no one's ever been able, really, to do their own version of James Bond or something. It doesn't work. And that's not at all what this is. This is much more my attempt to create the sort of excitement in grand-scale entertainment I felt from those movies as a kid, in my own way."
You can check out the official description for "Tenet" below!
"Armed with only one word—Tenet—and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real-time."
Tenet is currently scheduled to be released on July 17th.