Summer-Preview-Interstellar

 

Director Christopher Nolan is known for the secrecy that surrounds the production of his films. Think locked rooms, surreptitiously delivered scripts, each page watermarked with the name of the actor, and endings that are verbally delivered. In fact, during the filming of the final scene from The Dark Knight Rises (Spoiler), Christian Bale was on set in order to prevent leaks about the ending. Although, considering the recent escapade surrounding the Quentin Tarantino Hateful Eight leak, one can never be too careful. Nolan has been as evasive as ever about Interstellar, which will be his first film since the end of The Dark Knight Trilogy in 2012. But, since the release of the teaser trailer in December, hints about the up coming science fiction picture are slowly beginning to emerge.

“We have always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible.” So begins the teaser to Interstellar. What follows is archival footage of the Kansas Dust Bowl, Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier, and the ends of Neil Armstrong’s iconic utterance, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. Only the final moments of the teaser – a tearful Matthew McConaughey, a toy rocket covered in dust, a lonely rocket climbing into space over two joined hands – show what might be scenes filmed for Nolan’s actual film.

“I grew up in an era that was a golden age of the blockbuster, when something we might call a family film could have universal appeal,” Nolan recently told his audience at CinemaCon. “In terms of the tone…it looks at where we are as a people and has a universality about human experience.” We know that Interstellar follows a team of explorers who use wormholes to travel through space, surpassing the limitations on human space travel and conquering the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage. And Nolan has also revealed that Kip Thorne, a theoretical physicist, had a role in the production of the film. Thorne’s work revolves around the idea of traversable wormholes, that is, the theory that wormholes could be used for time travel. Which means the vast distances the explorers conquer most likely hint at travelling through time.

We also know that the film will star recent Academy Award winner Matthew McConaughey. He appears alongside an all star cast, which includes Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, David Oyelowo, Casey Affleck, Matt Damon, Ellen Burstyn and Nolan staple Michael Caine. McConaughey will lead as Cooper and, though Nolan hasn’t revealed many details about the characters, he has revealed that McConaughey will play “an everyman, someone who is relatable, someone the audience could experience the extraordinary events of the film with.” It sounds like another diversion, but being relatable and real is important to Nolan films. Think about the familiarity of Gotham City in The Trilogy (Wall Street, the Football Stadium) the character of Ariadne (Ellen Page) in Inception. Nolan even shies away from using too much green screen and CGI (seriously, watch the making of the Inception zero gravity fight sequence) and admitted to sticking pictures outside the windows of the shuttle for his actors to react to instead of play pretend.

Despite a lack of details, the little that is known about the production (that Spielberg asked  Nolan’s brother and frequent collaborator, Jonathan Nolan, to write the screenplay. That Nolan worked closely with Kip Thorne, who calls Stephen Hawking a friend. That, though Spielberg was signed on to direct, he handed the chair over to Nolan. And that, as a result, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros Pictures are working together to produce and distribute the film) are enough to raise high anticipation for Interstellar.

With Memento, Inception and The Dark Knight Trilogy, Nolan demonstrated his ability to create big event Hollywood cinema driven by story and character, rather than the big action sequences typical of Blockbuster films (after all, the two don’t actually have to be mutually exclusive). Nolan has established himself as an ambitious storyteller, with intelligent narratives that constantly push and challenge. With Memento, Nolan challenged linear narrative with a story that was told backwards. In Inception, Nolan crafted a multilayered narrative. With the Dark Knight Trilogy, Nolan redefined the comic book film. He set the bar for all the Amazing Spiderman’s, the X-Men prequels, sequels to the prequels, and the spawn of Marvel sequels that each claim to be darker than the one before.

In the final moments of the teaser, McConaughey laments that “perhaps we have just forgotten that we are still pioneers, that we have barely begun and that our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us, because our destiny lies above us.” Perhaps this will be true for Christopher Nolan. In a Summer that is crowded with comic book films, young adult adaptations, sequels and reboots, we hope Interstellar will bow the year out with the originality, the intelligence and the beauty that are characteristic of Christopher Nolan’s films.

Interstellar is out November 7th this year. Which, of course, isn’t during Summer, but this is a film we’re all looking forward to.