John welcomes writer and director Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception) to discuss experimentation, subjectivity and adaptation as they take an in-depth look at his screenplay, Oppenheimer.

They explore Chris’ writing process, how to make non-linear structures work, finding the story in real-life events, being kinetic on the page, the importance of embracing editing, and why theme can be a tricky thing.

In our bonus segment for premium members, Chris and John muse about the difficulties of dream sequences — and what makes them work.

Links:

• Oppenheimer – The First Three Pages
• Christopher Nolan on IMDb.
• American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
• The Open Mind by J. Robert Oppenheimer
• The Shepard Tone
• When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut
• Infinite Mac
• Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
• Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
• Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription or treat yourself to a premium subscription!
• Craig Mazin on Threads and Instagram
• John August on Threads, Instagram and Twitter
• John on Mastodon
• Outro by Matthew Chilelli (send us yours!)
• Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

UPDATE 1-16-24: The transcript for this episode can be found here.

The post The One with Christopher Nolan first appeared on John August.