Christopher Nolan Biography

Christopher Nolan and his director hands.

Christopher James Nolan was born on July 30, 1970 in London, England. His father was an Englishman and his mother was an American, which would lead to Nolan spending lots of time travelling across the Atlantic Ocean during his childhood to see his parents. He had an interest in plant biology, but his future in botany was erased as soon as the seven-year-old found his father's camera. Using the Super 8 camera, Christopher began filming, using his action figures as the cast. He also became friends with another future director and producer named Roko Belic, and together they would make short films when Nolan was in Chicago. The movie that Chris cites as being a big influence during his childhood was Blade Runner. Nolan attended Haileybury College at Hertford Heath in Hertfordshire, England. He would later study English Literature at University College London, and during that time, Nolan would film several short films in the college film society. His first short film, Tantarella, got onto a showcase called Image Onion on PBS. His second, Larceny, would be shown at the 1996 Cambridge Film Festival.

In 1996, Nolan would begin working on his first feature film, Following. He would work on it during the weekends with college friends over the course of a year. Nolan uses non-linear storytelling to create feelings throughout the film that mirrors the protagonist's feelings. Made for only about $6,000, Following recieved notice at the films premier at the San Francisco Film Festival in 1998, and was able to gain money through limited distribution as a result. Newmarket Films saw the success of Following and gave Nolan the materials neccessary to make another film. From this, Nolan made the critically acclaimed cult film, Memento, which was released in 2000. The film itself is based off of his brother's short film called Memento Mori. Once again, Christopher used more non-linear storytelling, keeping the audience guessing. It got two nominations, one for a Golden Globe and one for an Academy Award, both for best screenplay. Now, with two beloved films made, Nolan decided to do remake a Norweigan film called Insomnia, which was released in 2002. Starring Al Pacino, the movie uses non-linear storytelling, which was becoming a sort of trademark of Nolan's at the time. His techniques were still loved by critics, and Chris' success would lead to his biggest project yet.

After the release of Batman and Robin in 1997, which would receive many negative reviews and was not well loved by the regular movie goer, Warner Bros put a halt on plans to another Batman sequel. Despite their failure, Nolan approached them with the idea of rebooting the Batman series. He was given the green light in 2003, and the resulting movie, Batman Begins, would be released in 2005. It was Nolan's first blockbuster movie, and it would include stars such as Christian Bale (American Psycho), Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption), and Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later). Chris would see success once again; critics and movie goers alike loved it, and some even said that it was better than Tim Burton's Batman, released in 1989. It was nominated for an Academy Award for best cinematography. Afterwards, Nolan directed for The Prestige, a movie adaptation of a book about two rival magicians in the 19th century. Christian Bale and Michael Caine would return from Batman Begins to work with Nolan, while attracting Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, and David Bowie to support. This movie was also met with positive reviews, and Nolan continued to build up his résumé with numerous successful films.

Christopher Nolan, wondering how he could possibly go wrong now. It's not an easy task.

This would lead to the sequel The Dark Knight, which would become an overwhelming success. Despite setbacks, such as Katie Holmes deciding not to fill in her character's role from the first movie, and the death of Heath Ledger affecting the marketing of the movie, The Dark Knight became a huge hit, gaining over $800,000,000 in profit, making it as one of the biggest grossing films of all time. This would secure Nolan's place as a big time director in Hollywood. Now with one of the biggest films on his résumé, Nolan was set to direct a science fiction film called Inception, based on a script that Nolan himself wrote. The movie, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, was released in 2010 and has so far recieved positive reviews. For the future, Nolan is working on a Superman movie called The Man of Steel, and he is also working on finishing his Batman trilogy.

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Credited Name	Christopher Nolan
Gender	Male
Birthday	July 30, 1970
Death
Primary Role	Director
Hometown	London
Country	England, United Kingdom
Website
Email Address
Alias(es)

Career	$2.5B
Average	$223.9MM

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Christopher Nolan Biography

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