Christopher Nolan admitted there’s one genre left on his bucket list that he calls “essentially cinematic.” The director explained what’s stopping him and revealed the surprising film he thinks already qualifies.
Christopher Nolan would ‘love’ to tackle an ‘essentially cinematic’ genre
Christopher Nolan revealed his desire to make a horror movie during a recent interview with Fred Asquith. The director discussed genres he has yet to fully explore while promoting his new epic, The Odyssey. He stated that horror remains a genre he finds deeply compelling for its visceral, audience-driven qualities.
“I’d love to do a horror movie,” Nolan said during the conversation. He clarified that finding the right story remains the key barrier to pursuing the genre. “It’s all about the idea. It’s all about ‘Is there a story that really compels you?'” he added.
Nolan acknowledged that elements of horror already appear throughout his filmography. He specifically pointed to Oppenheimer as a film with horror-like qualities. “There’s a sense in which Oppenheimer is a horror movie,” he explained. He described its subject matter as “very dark material to engage with for that long.”
The director also highlighted horror elements baked into The Odyssey’s source material. Homer’s original text contains significant moments of terror that Nolan chose to embrace fully. “I’ve tried to fully embrace those because I think it’s a genre that’s really essentially cinematic,” he said.
Nolan described horror as a “visceral genre” that prioritizes audience experience above all else. He values the way horror films attempt to make viewers feel what characters experience on screen. “It’s one where you’re really trying to give the audience a feeling of what the characters are experiencing,” he noted. He connected this quality directly to the type of filmmaking he enjoys most.
The Odyssey premiered in London on July 6. Universal Pictures will release the film theatrically on July 17 in the United States and the United Kingdom.
