Christopher Nolan’s tragedy
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Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Reliving Memento, Sundance Sales, Jesse Eisenberg is a beast, Triangle of Sadness typecasting, and a newborn lamb.
Let’s go!
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN'S TRAGEDY
Christopher Nolan can’t escape Memento.
At the Sundance 2024 Opening Night Gala, which raised over $1.6M, Nolan recalled the nightmare of his post-Memento (2000) Sundance screening:
“A lot of people know that Memento came to Sundance. A lot of people know that it was a hit, and it enabled so much more that came after it for us. But not a lot of people know that what really happened with that film is we finished it, and... [we had a] screening for all of the independent distributors at the same time to try and sell the film, get a bidding war going or whatever. And they all passed.”
Nolan continued:
“No one wanted the film. In the year or so after that, we were in terrible limbo, we never knew whether anyone would ever see this film.”
Nolan praised Aaron Ryder (EP: Memento, Prod: Arrival), WME Managing Partner Dan Aloni, Bob Berney (EP: The Clovehitch Killer) and Stuart Cornfeld (prod: The Fly) for taking it upon themselves to essentially self-distribute the film.
Shockingly, Memento’s impact at Sundance was vital to his latest film, Oppenheimer, getting the green light.
Nolan discussed a frightening make-or-break-it call with the CEO of Comcast (parent company of Universal):
“We’ve just sold his studio, a three-hour film about quantum physics and the apocalypse, and it’s R-rated. I don’t know, maybe somebody finally figured out what we’d done or whatever.”
When the Head of Comcast opened the call by mentioning he’d attended the 1999 Sundance screening of Memento and loved the film, Nolan was relieved... and slightly crestfallen:
“I mean it's a quarter of a century later and I'm still being f***ing discovered by Sundance. It's like, oh what point do I get to move on to bigger things?...The experience you have here as a filmmaker is unique in all the world and you carry it with you through your whole career.”
It’s fascinating that Nolan, despite his meteoric career, appears burdened by the gravity of his first success.