Christopher Nolan has prevailed as a genius filmmaker honing his craft and vision in every movie since his first movie The Following. With his recent flick Oppenheimer, Nolan accomplished the best way to make a biopic.
However, the director would take on the biographical narratives earlier than we imagine, he even finished writing the script for the movie but legendary director Martin Scorsese had the Howard Hughes project in production. Later, Nolan gave up on making his version of the movie.
Christopher Nolan Wrote A Howard Hughes Movie
Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator starring Leonardo DiCaprio came out in 2004. Based on Charles Higham’s Howard Hughes: The Secret Life, the movie was written by John Logan. But before The Aviator was moving to production, another Howard Hughes project was cooking and it was Christopher Nolan penning the life of the American aerospace engineer for a movie.
Nolan was pretty invested in making the biographical movie on the billionaire. He believed in his screenplay and had Jim Carrey in mind to play Hughes. However, Nolan had to give up on his dream to make the Hughes project as Scorsese’s The Aviator rolled into production.
“It was very emotional to not get to make something I’d poured all that into,” Nolan told Variety. The director has not seen the 2004 Scorsese movie on Hughes as he candidly confessed The Aviator and his Inception star DiCaprio as they were filming the 2010 action sci-fi.
Fans Support Christopher Nolan’s Howard Hughes Dream
The Scorsese movie on Hughes has already been a phenomenon. Of course, the movie didn’t perform at the box office the way it was expected, grossing only $213.7 million against the production budget of $110 million. Still, the movie was adored by critics and it was a justice to the wonderful life of Hughes. But it doesn’t mean that Nolan has no room for another Hughes movie, at least, his fans believe the director should make another biographical spectacle like Oppenheimer with the story of Hughes.
Unhappy at not being able to make his biopic on Howard Hughes, Christopher Nolan confessed to Leonardo Di Caprio on the set of Inception that he had not seen Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Aviator’.
“It was very emotional to not get to make something I’d poured all that into,” says… pic.twitter.com/NV5aPjWOY6
— Christopher Nolan Art & Updates (@NolanAnalyst) November 12, 2023
He can still make it. I’d cast someone like Billy Crudup as Hughes.
— THE PROUD REBEL (@the_proud_rebel) November 13, 2023
Maybe time to do it again?
— Mitesh Rathod (@rathodmitesh09) November 13, 2023
What stops him from making it now or in near future? It will have similarities (duh), but Scorsese and Nolan are different filmmakers who can tell a similar story in totally different ways. Likewise, the existence of Fat Man & Little Boy didn’t stop Nolan from making Oppenheimer.
— Nolanstellar_guy (@NolanstellarG) November 12, 2023
Goddamn it. Jim being directed by Christopher Nolan in a Howard Hughes biopic? How I wish that would have happened.
— The Film Buff (@thefilmbuff30) August 23, 2022
Despite fans’ call for another Hughes biopic, it is unlikely that Nolan would jump right into his early script on the life of the billionaire aerospace engineer. But fans can be assured that whatever project he takes on will be another spectacle like all of the movies he has made in his astounding career.
The Aviator is available to stream on Paramount Plus.
