Christopher Nolan's Unmade Action Movie Would've Answered To 1 Big Criticism He Has Faced For 20 Years (2024)

Christopher Nolan has explored different genres in his career as a filmmaker, but there’s one genre he hasn’t covered yet – and one unmade movie could solve this and address a big criticism Nolan has faced for years. Christopher Nolan is one of the most respected and popular filmmakers of his generation, with his works getting praise from critics and general audiences. As such, there’s always anticipation (and speculation) around his next projects, but by now, viewers know exactly what to expect from Nolan’s movies.

Nolan often explores the concepts of time, memory, and personal identity in his works, and most of his movies include at least one twist that completely changes what the audience thought they knew up to that point. Nolan has also mixed genres, mostly sci-fi with drama, and his movies have a serious tone. Despite the success of Nolan’s works with critics and viewers, he hasn’t escaped criticism, one of the biggest ones being the lack of humor in his stories, but this could have been fixed years ago with his unmade action comedy.

Jonathan & Christopher Nolan’s Unmade Action Comedy Explained

Christopher Nolan Could Have Made His First Comedy Years Ago

During a TV producers roundtable hosted by THR, Jonathan Nolan shared that he and his brother, Christopher Nolan, were working on a script while the latter tried to sell Memento. Memento is based on a short story by Jonathan Nolan, and it’s told in a non-linear narrative, presented as two different sequences interspersed during the movie: one is in black-and-white and shown chronologically, and the other is in color and shown in reverse order, all this to illustrate the protagonist’s anterograde amnesia. Although it’s now regarded as one of Nolan’s best works, it’s easy to see why Memento struggled to find a studio.

While Memento waited for a chance, Jonathan and Christopher Nolan started working on a script for an action comedy and spent six months on it. Jonathan Nolan calls it “the one that got away” but added that they may go back to it someday. In a separate talk on Dax Shephard’s Armchair Expert podcast (via ThePlaylist), Jonathan Nolan shared that he couldn’t describe the project in case his brother ever wants to go back to it, and added that his brother’s public and private personas are very different and he’s a “goofball”, so it’s not that surprising that he came up with the idea for a comedy.

Christopher Nolan’s Movies Are Usually Criticized For Not Having Enough Humor

To Some, Nolan’s Movies Are Too Serious

Christopher Nolan has a very peculiar filmmaking style that makes his movies instantly recognizable, favoring practical effects and real filming locations over CGI and studio work, shooting on film rather than digital, and covering complex, existential, and serious themes. Because of this and more, Nolan’s works tend to be a lot more serious than light or even comedic and lean a lot more on drama and suspense. The characters in Nolan’s movies are often morally ambiguous, emotionally disturbed, and forced to face their fears, anxieties, and more, not leaving much room for humor.

While all that and more about Nolan’s movies isn’t bad, nor do they take away from the quality and value of his work, many critics and viewers have found the lack of humor in his movies to be an issue. Although it’s not a requirement for every movie to have hints of humor to lessen or soften its core themes and overall tone, Nolan’s movies have been a common target of this specific criticism, even if they don’t need to add humor.

However, while these critiques are not wrong, as Nolan’s movies certainly don’t have much humor (though it’s justified for the above-mentioned reasons), they ignore that most of his movies do have some lighter and funnier moments, though in a very Nolan way.

Most Of Christopher Nolan’s Movies Are Actually Funny

Although None Of Them Are Comedies, They Have Subtle Comedic Moments

So far in his career, Christopher Nolan hasn’t made a comedy film, but comedy hasn’t been absent in his works. Nolan’s approach to lighter and comedic moments in his movies has been more subtle, and they all have a reason to be within the story – simply put, Nolan doesn’t add comedy to his works just for the sake of it. Movies like Inception, Tenet, and his take on Batman in the Dark Knight trilogy have subtle moments that can make anyone laugh, and Bale’s Batman, in particular, delivered many of those moments.

Jonathan Nolan sharing that he and his brother might revisit that action comedy script they worked on years ago gives some hope for it to happen at some point, but at the time of writing, it seems unlikely it will happen in the near future. Until then, the audience will continue to enjoy the subtle but clever and funny comedic moments in Christopher Nolan’s movies made in his unique narrative and visual style.

Sources: THR, Armchair Expert (via The Playlist).