There is a new update for Christopher Nolan's next film, and it comes just a couple of days
after Nolan's big oscar night for Oppenheimer. The update itself comes from Variety, which is
of course a reliable source in Hollywood, and they say that Nolan is looking at two potential routes,
with one of them being a remake of the 1967 hit tv show, The Prisoner. So in this video,
I'm going to be discussing what was said, what I think towards it and whether The Prisoner can make
a great Nolan film. Before I get into it though, if you want to see more content on the director
and his future projects, then don't forget to support this upload by giving it a like rating
and subscribing to the channel. But without further a do, lets dive into the new updates
surrounding Christopher Nolan's next movie. So this sunday Christopher Nolan and his
Oppenheimer team sweeped the oscars, winning 7 awards, including Best Director and Best Picture.
And now all eyes have begun to turn to what the director might do next. It was said on
Monday that Christopher Nolan is now writting his next script, so many of us thought that it could
be a while before we find out what that actually is. But less than a day later, Variety posted an
article on the filmmaker which included a brief mention of what this could actually be. In the
article it read, "Some say it will be a remake of the mystery-thriller “The Prisoner,” based on the
1960s TV series created by and starring Patrick McGoohan, which Nolan was attached to in 2009.
But the sci-fi project vanished from Nolan’s dance card that same year, when AMC released
its own “The Prisoners,” a six-part miniseries led by Jim Caviezel as the ill-fated agent Number Six
alongside Ian McKellen and Ruth Wilson. Others say he will begin writing a new screenplay now
that the awards season is behind him. Warner Bros and Universal are the two studios most likely to
prevail in the race for Nolan’s services, but it would be hard for the filmmaker to walk away
from the latter considering that Universal helped him pull off what Warner Bros never could." So in
that article there were some really interesting details, and one was the hint that Universal and
Warner Bros might work together on Nolan's next film. I had said in my previous video on Nolan
potentially reteaming with warner bros, that it would be a shame if he was to leave Universal
after the success of Oppenheimer. So with the suggestion that he might team with both is an
interesting prospect, that to be honest, could be what happens. The other thing to take from this is
that Variety says that Nolan is either taking the route of remaking The Prisoner or another
original film. In recent years, the director has traditionally made a historical film or franchise
film like Batman and then followed it up with an original project. So I think his next film
potentially being an original one is a very likely option if his filmography is anything to go off.
And just say it goes in the opposite direction, and he does decide to do a remake of The Prisoner,
then like the article pointed out, he's already worked on a script for it several years ago. At
that time he was frustrated at not being able to finish the script and said that ultimately
he just wasn't able to crack it then. So I think both of these options that Variety have referenced
based on what they've heard are very likely choices when it comes to Nolan's next film.
But let's just say that The Prisoner is the film that Christopher Nolan would make next,
what do I think of it and can this actually work? Well, if you remember my predictions video on
Nolan's next film, which I released shortly after Oppenheimer, one of my predictions was that Nolan
would go the route of a mystery/thriller film and return to that script he started for The Prisoner.
In that video I said, "it could be interesting to see something in the vein of say Stanley
Kubrick's The Shinning but more in the style of a Christopher Nolan movie, with a hint of The Truman
Show. And if it wasn't a Horror film, I could see us getting some sort of story in the mold of the
mystery genre, one that has elements of horror or even sci-fi infused into it. The 1967 tv show The
Prisoner, follows a British intelligence agent who's been abducted, taken to a strange coastal
village with constant surveillance, and anyone who tries to escape is recaptured or killed. So at the
time, I thought that was an interesting idea that the director could revisit. In 2017, Entertainment
Weekly described the show as one that had never been more relatable. They said, "A man wakes up in
a world that is familiar yet strange, peaceful on the outside and endlessly assaultive from within.
He can't trust anyone and he can't trust reality. He knows he is fighting something nefarious and
a force of evil. But that force is elusive, seems to be in the blood veins of his community,
touches everything in his past and shrouds his future in mystery. Every action he takes becomes
vital, a potential act of escape, and yet every move he makes seems pointless, one more failure
in a world where even winning feels like losing. What makes The Prisoner timeless is how the show
approaches the main character's rebellion from all sides, how it seeks to explain yet finds so many
explanations that the truth becomes fuzzy. There are 17 episodes and they are weird, wild, druggy,
trippy, clever, sorrowful, goofy and gorgeous." On the Happy Sad Confused podcast a few months ago,
Christopher Nolan said in response to being asked about making The Prisoner, "I wouldn’t wanna say
anything about what I’m gonna do next… because the truth is I haven’t figured it out”. But now he's
writting the script for his next film and with The Prisoner being brought back up by Variety,
it definitely suggests that this could be a potentially option. Like I said before,
I would love to see his direct approach on something like a mystery or going fully into
the horror genre, as we've seen great flashes of those genres throughout his other films. And I
think it would make sense to see him go down that path at some point in his career. So I think that
if he was to remake The Prisoner, it would lean more into the psychological, obviously have a big
infusion of realism, yet capture the weirdness and mystery at the heart of that story.
According to producer Barry Mendel, the original script to Nolan's version years
ago was substantially different from the remake of The Prisoner in 2009,
which stared Sir Ian McKellen. He said, “If the series was wildly popular that might effect us
but the screenplay that David and Janet wrote was such a re-imagination of the series. This
looks and feels so different that the tenants of the show are apparent but the execution of it is
so different that I think it is unrecognisable. Whereas the TV show is a well done, modernly shot
updated version of the original show, but much more faithful to it too.” So it sounds like if
Nolan was to do it, it would keep the spirit and ideas, but be wildly different as well. It's not
yet known if Christopher Nolan could reprise this version of the script, but again, with the
rights to the series being at Universal, and Nolan wanting to put his stamp on this for many years,
I think there's a posibility he does make this at some point in time. Whether that means its going
to be next is the big question, but it's clear that he wants to make it and according to Variety
it has the potential to be his next project. At the end of the day, only Christopher Nolan knows
what he's going to do next, and if I had to guess, I'd still probabaly lean more in the direction of
it being another original film. But whatever he takes on, I trust that he'll do something great,
both by bringing his auteur style to it and by making it interesting and reflective of the time.
The Prisoner is definitely a project that I think can be made relatable today and one that has the
room for a lot of creativity, something that his original script apparently tried to bring. While
we might have to wait a while to get a full confirmation of what his next movie will be,
I'm sure it'll be worth it. The strikes are over and the award season is now finished,
so Nolan can start working on his next project and hopefully give us another all-time classic.
But that was my video discussing the updates surrounding Christopher Nolan's next film. I'm
really interested to see what Nolan tackles after Oppenheimer, what genre and idea that will be,
and how he will put his stamp on it. The director is now working on the script for his next movie,
so it might be a while before we have a complete confirmation on what it actually is. Still,
it's interesting to hear from a big source like Variety that these
are the two likely routes. I still think it will be an original film,
but with him wanting to make The Prisoner for a while, I think there's a lot of potential in
that happening too. But let me know down below in the comments section what you think towards
these rumours of Christopher Nolan remaking The Prisoner or another original film.
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I hope you guys enjoyed it, I've been Cortex and as always make some noise.