9 July 2023
Remember when it was rumoured Rob gifted Nolan a book on Oppenheimer’s speeches after they wrapped Tenet. Well here’s Christopher Nolan confirming that he did in fact receive the book as a gift from Rob and why Rob didn’t feature in his film “Oppenheimer” – “He was busy, he’s very much in demand these days”. Video starts at the spot where Nolan is asked about the book and why wasn’t Rob offered a role.
Full quote from Deadline:
“Yeah, Rob, off the back of Tenet, where we refer to Oppenheimer, and I had wrote a thing about this incredible moment that Oppenheimer and the scientist of the Manhattan Project had where they could not completely eliminate the possibility that when they triggered that first gadget, that first atomic device, they might start the chain reaction that would destroy the world,” Nolan said in an interview with journalist Tara Hitchcock.
Nolan continued, “We used that as a metaphor for Tenet, which Rob was in. As a wrap gift, he gave me a book of Oppenheimer‘s speeches from the 1950s, where you’re reading these great intellects trying to deal with the massive consequences of the way in which they’ve changed life forever, for all of us.”
10 September 2021
Yesterday news came out via Deadline concerning a new film by Nolan about Robert Oppenheimer and the development of the A-Bomb. It was wishful thinking as you can see below, that I was hoping that Rob may be involved seeing as they said “there will clearly be many big star parts” [My emphasis]
And although at the moment the only person who seems to possibly be attached to the film is Cillian Murphy. Which had me even more excited about Rob hopefully being involved – that is until my excitement went up an even bigger notch when this interesting tidbit that Rob actually gifted Nolan a book about Oppenheimer surfaced thanks to @metaplexmovies:
Clearly Nolan and Rob have spoken about this project …. right? A girl can dream and Nolan does like working with people he loves and he certainly did love Rob.
Alright, alright! Let’s have RP as Oppenheimer ok? He has already played a Physics major in Tenet and said he read Feynman. And maybe others like Oppenheimer (presumably, since it is said that he gifted the anthology of RO’s speech to Nolan). More than that he looks like RO a lot with high cheek bones and face outline and if the Internet is to be believed, Oppenheimer was 5’10”, so the height sort of works out (better than short people playing tall characters). Only wrinkle is Nolan is not happy with WB and what effect it will have with a Nolan-RP partnership. But can anyone else play a tortured soul like RP does? Because Oppenheimer was a tortured soul.
{Maria, I sent you the email before seeing your tweet, 🙂 }
He could play Feynman too. But he will have to play the goofy charmer.
I am not going to lie. I am concerned about how the Batman physique will affect all these other characters we want him to play. I won’t lose sleep over it but it is there.
Hi PM – I posted about this story of Rob gifting the book to Nolan and so moved your comments to this post.
It's definitely something interesting to keep an eye on (which I will do) and hopefully Nolan and Rob have spoken about the movie given the uniqueness of the gift.
Absolutely, a girl's gotta dream! And let's be honest: stranger things have happened, right? I do like the book link theory ……..
Thanks, Maria. Saw a tweet yesterday saying Priya in Tenet mentions Oppenheimer. Today I saw this tweet with the scene and what she says:
https://twitter.com/filmjolnir/status/1436340775361466370
So many possibilities. The movie could be about this new Tenet scientist who is haunted by Oppenheimer's ghost, LOL. Since it is Nolan, I don't think it will be a straight biopic of Oppenheimer.