Christopher Nolan’s next film? Seven ideas he’s floated in interviews

If you're just catching your breath after Christopher Nolan's latest epic, The Odyssey, you're not alone. The bloke's just smashed his own box office record – Oppenheimer has officially been booted off the top spot. The films are wildly different – one a sun-drenched, monster-packed Greek odyssey, the other a tense, atomic-fueled biopic. Every time Nolan drops a new film, it becomes a full-blown cinematic event. So – naturally – the next question is: what the hell will he do next?

Given Nolan's track record of shifting genres as if he's allergic to repetition, it's anyone's guess. We’ve been digging through nearly 30 years of his career, all his old interviews, and there are at least a few directions he genuinely seems interested in. Some are properly surprising. Here’s what could (not “will”, mind) be on the cards.

• A Horror Film – If He Can Actually Find a Decent Story
  Nolan's dabbled in horror vibes before – parts of The Odyssey (think the Cyclops, or Circe’s brutal transformation scenes) are proper nightmare fuel, and he's always enjoyed toying with psychological dread. But as he told Empire, he’d only go fully into horror if the right 'undeniable' story came up, since he reckons there are very few truly great horror films out there. If he ever finds the right project, expect something seriously disturbing.
• A Western – Feels Almost Too Obvious
  Nolan loves a morally grey anti-hero – classic Western stuff – and he’s basically flirted with Westerns in everything from Oppenheimer (those wide hats and the makeshift New Mexico town aren’t exactly subtle) to the antihero obsession. He’s introduced Shane at events; The Searchers is in his DNA. With the genre getting a bit of a revival, Nolan doing a full-on Western seems almost inevitable.
• A Gritty Crime Epic – His Michael Mann Obsession
  Nolan’s a self-confessed Heat superfan, and if you line up the opening of The Dark Knight against Mann’s crime classic, it’s basically a love letter (even casting William Fichtner). After putting himself through the wringer with the massiveness of The Odyssey, it wouldn’t be a shock if he downsized to do a tighter, nastier crime flick. If that happens, genre fans will lose it.
• An Action Comedy – Yes, Really
  This one’s odd, but entirely true: Nolan and his brother Jonathan once bashed out an action-comedy script, back during their Memento days. Nothing’s been heard of it since, but Nolan has gone on record saying he’s unironically obsessed with Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (actual quote: he’ll watch it any time it’s on). It’s by far the least likely, but stranger things have happened.
• James Bond – Not This Next One, Maybe the One After
  He was deep in negotiations with Amazon MGM to direct Bond #26 (they were ready to give him final cut – almost unheard of). But Denis Villeneuve’s got the gig for a 2028 release after Dune: Part Three. Nolan’s always had a spy-thriller itch (see: Inception, Tenet), and Bond producers know it. Don't bank on him for the next Bond, but #27 is still wide open.
• The Prisoner Remake – He Nearly Did It Once
  You remember The Prisoner? That deeply British, deeply weird 60s show with the giant white ball and a protagonist called Number Six? Nolan was attached to adapting it back in 2009, but apparently couldn’t crack a script he was happy with. Now that Bond’s off the table (for now), this is the kind of brain-bending, spy-tinged property he could return to.
• The Keys to the Street – The Long-Lost Nolan Noir
  Nolan actually wrote a script based on Ruth Rendell’s bleak 1996 crime novel – all about a woman squeezed between an abusive ex and a series of London murders after donating bone marrow to a mysterious stranger. He shelved the idea after Memento and Insomnia, thinking it was one too many thrillers in a row. But post-Odyssey, something smaller and nastier could be a smart move, and the story’s still there if he wants it.

'I've always wanted to do a horror film. The challenge is, you only get one shot at something like that. The truly great horror films work because, at their core, they've got an undeniable story.'