Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey opens big after film-school rejection
The director’s new film led the global box office, years after he said film school “didn’t want me.”
By Sofia Marchetti · World Affairs Correspondent
3 min read
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey opened with $262.1 million worldwide, Fortune reported, giving the director another major box-office launch after Oppenheimer. The result adds a new chapter to a career that Nolan has said began with a setback: he was turned down by film school.
Nolan, born in London, was drawn to filmmaking as a child and made short videos with action figures, according to an interview with The Telegraph. He told the newspaper he knew by age 10 or 11 that he wanted to make movies.
His attempt to enter film school did not work out. “It’s not that I didn’t want to go to film school, it’s that film school didn’t want me,” Nolan said at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017. He added that he did not think he was suited to film school.
Nolan instead studied English literature at University College London, Fortune reported. That route has been credited with helping his writing and his use of language and metaphor, according to Fortune.
He later described his approach to risk in a 2005 interview with The Guardian. “If the film doesn’t work, it’s my fault,” Nolan said. “If I fail, I fail on my own terms.”
Nolan says success has not removed the pressure
Nolan’s recent run has put him at the top of the film business. Oppenheimer won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Nolan received his first Oscar for directing, according to Fortune. Celebrity Net Worth estimates his wealth at about $250 million.
Fortune reported that The Odyssey cost $250 million and was shot in a larger IMAX format, citing The New York Times for the format detail. The cast includes Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway and Tom Holland, according to Fortune.
Nolan said on The Daily Show that releasing a film remains daunting even after past success. “It never gets any easier, and it’s absolutely terrifying,” he said. He added that, for him, a movie is not complete until audiences respond to it.
Beyond its ticket sales, The Odyssey has received a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, according to the review site.
Other major directors also took less formal routes
Fortune also pointed to James Cameron and Steven Spielberg as filmmakers whose careers did not follow a standard film-school path.
Cameron, the director of Titanic and Avatar, became a billionaire last year, Forbes reported. Fortune reported that he briefly studied physics at Fullerton College in California before leaving school, then taught himself filmmaking and visual effects while working jobs that included truck driver and janitor.
Cameron told The New York Times he educated himself by using resources at the University of Southern California without being enrolled. He told CBS News last December that he is drawn to work he does not yet know how to do because it forces him to learn.
Spielberg also built a career through improvised opportunities, according to Fortune, including early odd jobs such as whitewashing citrus trees to help finance films. Forbes estimates Spielberg’s fortune at $7.1 billion.
At the Academy of Achievement in 2006, Spielberg advised people to pay attention to unexpected signals about what they want to do. He said those signals “very rarely” arrive loudly.
This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.