Christopher Nolan Once Shared He Got Called Out for Ripping off James Bond in This 1 Film
James Bond has been a franchise that Christopher Nolan has always been interested in dabbling in. But some critics already felt he borrowed heavily from the franchise when making one of his projects.
Christopher Nolan felt the wrong film got called out for ripping off James Bond
It’s no secret that Nolan has gotten inspiration from many of his features from the James Bond franchise.
“I’ve been plundering ruthlessly from the Bond movies in everything I’ve done, forever. They’re a huge influence on me,” Nolan once told Empire (via Den of Geek).
Audiences can find some of these Bond influences in films like Batman Begins.
“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. That idea of getting you to other places, of getting you along for a ride if you can believe in it,” Nolan said in a resurfaced interview with IndieWire.
Inception was another feature he borrowed elements from the Bond franchise for. But Nolan found it ironic that Inception, out of all of his films, was accused of heavily stealing from Bond. Especially when Inception demonstrated less Bond elements than his other movies.
“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,” Nolan once said in an interview with Seattle Pi.
Christopher Nolan feels there would be a few constraints when working on a James Bond film
Nolan would seem like the perfect candidate to direct the new Bond installment. The director also confided that he’d be more than happy to tackle the enduring franchise. But in an interview on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused, he cautioned that he’d need to be in a specific creative space to do the feature. Like Batman, Nolan felt doing a Bond movie came with certain responsibilities he needed to be ready for.
“At the same time, when you take on a character like that you’re working with a particular set of constraints,” Nolan said. “It has to be the right moment in your creative life where you can express what you want to express and really burrow into something within the appropriate constraints because you would never want to take on something like that and do it wrong.”
The Tenet director further asserted that he’s just as willing to sit back and see where another filmmaker might take the character.
“You wouldn’t want to take on a film without being fully committed to what you bring to the table creatively. So as a writer, casting, everything – it’s a full package,” he said. “You’d have to be really needed and wanted in terms of bringing the totality of what you bring to a character. Otherwise, I’m very happy to be first in line to see whatever they do.”
Still, Nolan hasn’t ruled out doing a Bond film entirely.
“I’ve spoken to the producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson over the years. I deeply love the character, and I’m always excited to see what they do with it. Maybe one day that would work out,” he once told Playboy.
Who is Christopher Nolan’s favorite James Bond?
Nolan’s favorite Bond might surprise a few. Whereas some might list Sean Connery or Daniel Craig as their favorite Bonds, Nolan revealed he had a soft spot for Timothy Dalton’s Bond. Dalton only played the character in two features, but still managed to leave an impression on the director.
“I think he’s closest to the character in the book,” he said in another interview on Happy Sad Confused.
