Christopher Nolan attended the Los Angeles Times Hero Complex Film Festival last night, where he not only screened his films
Insomnia and
The Dark Knight, but stuck around for a lengthy Q&A. Courtesy of
Collider.com, here are some of the highlights:
- Nolan prefers to use practical effects, in most cases, before resorting to digital effects and told a story about choosing between the two on Batman Begins. He said that effects are better when artists can match something real.
- His favorite scene in The Dark Knight is the interrogation, because the lighting was so technical and it brought together many of the main players in the cast. They filmed it during the second week so that Heath Ledger would have a good, meaty scene to use for the rest of the shoot. He also said they couldn’t have done the scene with the suit used in Batman Begins because it wouldn’t have looked good under that particular lighting; and that it was the first scene where we finally get to see a Batman driven by rage.
- LA Times writer, and the event's host, Geoff Boucher asked Nolan about the Superman reboot, though it was probably “too early to talk about things. He said he’s strictly on it as a producer and he retold the story of David Goyer pitching him this great idea. He wouldn’t say what the idea was but said he knew he had to help get it done.
- Batman Begins was directly inspired by Richard Donner's Superman and Nolan pitched it as such. He called the Burton [Batman] film “mad” and said Donner’s structure and ensemble casting helped influence Begins. He believes that cast is the reason many of the superhero movies now have huge actors in all the small parts.
- Geoff Boucher asked Nolan if he was amused when reading about his own casting on the internet. Nolan got a strange look on his face and said he doesn’t look at the internet; he added that he doesn’t even have an email or cell phone. He learned early on in the Begins process that it wasn’t a good idea to look at what the fans say. He did joke about the Cher rumor though and said the studio has called him and alluded to the fact they read those things.
- He was completely surprised at the success of The Dark Knight and said its success was due to a number or reasons including Heath Ledger. Another factor was that people were nervous about Batman Begins, because of the previous film in the franchise, and the idea of a reboot was foreign at the time. By the time <>The Dark Knight came out, people trusted it more.
- Nolan is not a fan of 3D. He feels the image is too dark and it hasn’t really gotten to the right place technologically yet for him to consider. They did post production tests for Inception, which he liked, but they didn’t have enough time to convert the whole film to his high standards. He added that shooting in 3D is way too much of a compromise of the image, and gave a bunch of very technical examples. The most interesting thing, though was Nolan said if he was to do a film in 3D, he believes the way to do it best is in post production.
Nolan's third, and final, Batman film will begin filming next March and is slated for a tentative release date of July 20, 2012. To read more of Nolan's thoughts on his past and present films, including
Inception and
The Prestige, follow the link below to Collider.com
MPP - It's surprising to me that Nolan actually
prefers a post-production 3D treatment as opposed to filming in 3D; which has been proven time and time again to be the best way to execute use of the technology. Also, I'm not too sure what Nolan meant by insinuating Tim Burton's
Batman films were "mad," but the comment really didn't come across as complimentary. Oh well, Mr. Nolan; to each his own.