One of the underrated corners of Christopher Nolan’s career is The Prestige, a thrilling movie about a rivalry between magicians played by Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman. While the author of the book, Christopher Priest, is happy with the way that turned out, he bluntly told a French movie site that he doesn’t like Nolan’s Batman movies.
In the interview with Skript, Priest revealed that during the entire process of making The Prestige, he only met Nolan once and that was when the movie was finished. “Because I wasn't very interested in him,” Priest continued. “We all have different points of view on the world. To the world he's this great, innovative filmmaker; to me, he was a kid who wanted to get into Hollywood.”
While Priest considers The Prestige among Nolan’s best films, along with Memento, Priest sounded as if he would have rather had Skyfall helmer am Mendes make the movie. He said that on the day that Mendes’ first film, American Beauty, won the Best Picture Oscar in 2000, he was contacted by Mendes, who wanted to make it as his next movie. But then he received a copy of Nolan’s first film, Following, from Nolan’s people and he decided to take a chance with Nolan.
As for Nolan’s other films, Priest is less impressed, notes The Hollywood Reporter. He called the Batman films “boring and pretentious” and slammed the writing.
“It's a wrong move to take a superhero and give it psychological realism,” Priest said of the Dark Knight films. “There is no psychological realism. He's a bodybuilder who jumps off buildings. I'm sorry I feel really strongly about this.”
At the end of the interview, Priest suggests that Nolan try to be a modern Alfred Hitchcock than a new Stanley Kubrick. “A maker of well-made films like Memento and The Prestige. And these blockbusters are just embarrassing, I think. I haven't seen the new one yet,” he concluded.
Then he’s definitely not going to like Interstellar when he finally sees it.
image courtesy of Dara Kushner/INFphoto.com