Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder – two of the greatest directors of the modern era of filmmaking certainly surpass most people’s list describing the top five visionaries in the field of cinema. And both have one element in common, apart from epic cinematography, storytelling, and music to tie it all together.
Their technical approach to filmmaking merged with the incredible foresight to envision greatness bound in each thread of the frame – a thousand words contained in a single image – as they say, is the mastery that the likes of Nolan and Snyder hold in the palm of their artistically gifted hands. It shouldn’t come as a surprise then that the pair have found inspiration in each other’s works, insomuch as to emulate the said inspiration in their future projects.
Christopher Nolan Takes Inspiration From Man of Steel
A world where Interstellar and Man of Steel can genuinely appreciate the beauty contained in each other is truly stunning, to begin with. The films which came out a year apart from one another seem to have more in common than the superficially charged storytelling and driven action of the plot. As it so happens, the two directors found the depiction of cornfields in their movies a non-negotiable object lending more authenticity and a grounded aspect to the otherwise high-flying narrative of their films’ arc.
In an interview with The Daily Beast, Christopher Nolan recalled how his 2014 epic science fiction film was inspired by Snyder’s Man of Steel in such a small aspect as growing a cornfield (something which could have easily been recreated using CGI) that later turned out to be an elemental factor in the Interstellar‘s unraveling plot.
“That all-American iconography has always been so potent in the Superman myth. It was in this script before I came to the project — he was developing the script for Steven Spielberg to direct, originally — and I think the Americana had worked its way in there. I certainly found it very helpful when I realized we were going to have to grow our own corn.
I phoned Zack [Snyder] and said, ‘Well how much did you grow?’ and he told me they grew 300 acres and that it cost X amount, so we grew about 500 acres of corn and actually sold it and ended up making a profit off it.”
It is no wonder that Hans Zimmer’s Cornfield Chase has become such an iconic rendition – not only setting the tone for the film in its entirety but also depicting the rapid deconstruction of time, memory, relations, and humanity.
An Era Witnessing the Birth of Interstellar and Man of Steel
One word to describe cinematic evolution, the brilliance of direction, a perfectly crafted story, an extraordinary execution, and a haunting musical score to back everything up: Interstellar. In its own genre, it surpasses almost every other work that has come before it – stress on “almost” because, well, there exists maestro Kubrick’s Space Odyssey. And to know that Nolan’s film had found a critical piece of inspiration from none other than Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, one of the most original adaptations and greatest Superman origin arcs to date, makes everything so much better.
In an era that is so invested in tearing apart the industry that the CBM franchises have helped build, not only bringing revenue to the box office but constantly and exponentially increasing the love of movies for cinemagoers, it becomes critical to acknowledge the contribution of Nolan and Snyder in helping erect the two of the most critically lauded, commercially successful, acclaimed, and immortal works in the form of the Dark Knight trilogy and the Justice League trilogy.
Interstellar and Man of Steel are currently available for streaming on Paramount+ and HBO Max respectively.
Source: The Daily Beast
