Christopher Nolan Is one of the most talented filmmakers of all time, with him being responsible for some of the most immersive, captivating, and beautiful films ever made which can only be described as spectacles. He has made a name for himself through his unique storytelling capabilities, which are incredibly psychologically compelling, as well as, the distinctive look of his films having well-thought-out camera work and editing. Some examples of projects that have helped establish the filmmaker as a force to be reckoned with in the industry are the Dark Knight trilogy, Dunkirk, Inception, and most recently, Oppenheimer.
The last thing one would expect Nolan to be accused of is copying a massively successful franchise and stealing ideas from them. This, however, was the case for the filmmaker who is accused of stealing ideas from the James Bond franchise for one of his most successful projects. What makes this all the more odd is the fact of Nolan’s confusion when finding out that this, of all of his projects, was the one to be accused of such a thing as well as his confession on the matter.
Christopher Nolan Talks About The James Bond Franchise
Christopher Nolan has always been very vocal about his admiration and obsession with the James Bond films. Confessing that the films have always had a big influence on his work, the filmmaker has a special place in his heart for the spy franchise. During an interview with IndieWire, he talked about the exact scenes, when it came to the inspiration that he had gotten from the Bond films in specific films, mentioning how the example of scope and scale in large-scale images came to him through this franchise.
“The globe-trotting elements of “Batman Begins” mostly came from the Bond films. One of the first films I remember seeing was “The Spy Who Loved Me” and at a certain point, the Bond films fixed in my head as a great example of scope and scale in large-scale images.” he went on, ““The Dark Knight Rises” we had to do a flying vehicle for Batman, which is very daunting, but that’s the challenge. It’s trying to take the audience for that ride, and that was sort of my job cinematically.”
Going on to state some examples, Nolan talked about how these movies helped him understand how to take out-of-the-box ideas and portray them in a way that takes the audience on a journey when watching a film. He also added that, though this is challenging, he has taken it upon himself as a filmmaker to do just that.
Christopher Nolan Was Confused When Inception Was Accused Of Copying James Bond
It is because of this very evident inspiration that Christopher Nolan found it quite odd that one of his most successful films, Inception was the one to be accused of copying or taking inspiration from James Bond films. The filmmaker stated that he had not been trying in any way to hide the fact that a lot of scenes in his films are a result of his admiration of the past Bond films, in fact, he had been quite vocal about it. This is why when he heard the news of what people were saying about the Leonardo DiCaprio film, he was quite surprised according to Seattle PI.
“We had been ripping off Bond in the Batman movies for a while, but nobody ever called us out. We throw in a snowmobile chase in Inception, and everyone calls me on it,”
His reasoning for this was the fact that he believed that Inception was the most tame ‘copy’ of a James Bond film. Elaborating on this, he stated that a lot of scenes in some of his most successful projects were heavily inspired by past Bond films, something he did not hide, but only one particular scene in a film that resulted in him being called out. He was surprised that it took this long for people to catch on to where his inspiration came from.
Source: Seattle PI
