WB Trying To Woo Christopher Nolan Back After He Jumped Ship To Universal Amid Tenet Drama

gamespot.com:

Warner Bros. is trying to woo back Batman director Christopher Nolan after the director parted ways with the film studio following his 2020 movie Tenet. This included paying Nolan a seven-figure check (meaning somewhere in the range of $1 million-$10 million), according to a report.

For some quick context, Nolan and WB worked together for years on the Batman movies, Inception, Interstellar, and more, but the relationship ended with Tenet. Nolan called WB's streaming service, then known as HBO Max, the «worst streaming service,» after WB elected to put Tenet in theaters and on streaming due to the pandemic. Nolan later signed a deal with Universal for his next movie, Oppenheimer, which releases in July.

This brings us to a new Variety interview with WB Film Group co-heads Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy. De Luca told the site, «We're hoping to get Nolan back. I think there's a world [where that happens],» he said.

Sources told the site that WB paid Nolan a seven-figure royalty check in the past year tied to Tenet. A source said De Luca, Abdy, and CEO David Zaslav agreed to pay Nolan in good faith with no strings attached. The site went on to report that «healing has begun» for the relationship, as Nolan did production work for Oppenheimer on the Warners lot.

Nolan was highly critical of WB's decision to release movies during the pandemic both in theaters and at home on streaming. «They're meant to be out there for the widest possible audiences… And now they're being used as a loss-leader for the streaming service--for the fledgling streaming service--without any consultation,» he said.

«Some of our industry's biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the