Christopher Nolan isn't exactly thrilled with his friends at Warner Bros. right about now.
The acclaimed director in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter slammed Warner Bros. for the studio's bombshell decision to release all of its 2021 movies on HBO Max on the same day they arrive in theaters.
"Some of our industry's biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service," Nolan told The Hollywood Reporter.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Nolan has long worked with Warner Bros. going back to 2002 on his movies like the Dark Knight trilogy and Inception, making the especially brutal nature of his comments surprising. But Nolan is famously a major proponent of the movie theater experience, and in September, Warner Bros. released his latest film Tenet as the first major tentpole back in U.S. theaters amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The film ultimately disappointed at the domestic box office.
Under the Warner Bros. plan, movies like Godzilla vs. Kong, Dune, and The Matrix 4 will still be released in theaters, but they'll also be available to stream on HBO Max the same day. Nolan argued to the Reporter this "makes no economic sense," and he blasted Warner Bros. for "dismantling" their "incredible machine for getting a filmmaker's work out everywhere." The director also told Entertainment Tonight he's in "disbelief" over the plan and criticized Warner Bros. because "they didn't tell anyone" before the announcement.
Nolan is hardly the only one unhappy with the decision. In addition to theaters being outraged, Legendary Entertainment, the production company behind Godzilla vs. Kong and Dune, is reportedly considering suing over it, and the Reporter writes that the "instant response in Hollywood was outrage and a massive girding for battle." Indeed, one talent agent told the Reporter, "Never have this many people been this upset with one entity."
-
Google avoids the worst in antitrust rulingSpeed Read A federal judge rejected the government's request to break up Google
-
Colleges are being overwhelmed with active shooter hoaxesIn the Spotlight More than a dozen colleges have reported active shooter prank calls
-
US kills 11 on 'drug-carrying boat' off VenezuelaSpeed Read Trump claimed those killed in the strike were 'positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists' shipping drugs to the US
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talkSpeed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposesspeed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
-
New Mexico to investigate death of Gene Hackman, wifespeed read The Oscar-winning actor and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their home with no signs of foul play
