The 2026 movie schedule is filled with a vast array of exciting titles, and Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey is definitely shaping up to be one of them. Nolan is primed to jump into mythological territory with this latest motion picture, and early looks at the film have sparked hype (and nitpicks) from the public. While fans still have to wait several months to see the finished film, Nolan’s brother, Jonathan, has already screened it. And, luckily, the younger Nolan shared his take on the film while speaking with CinemaBlend.

Filmmakers are known to screen early cuts of their movies for friends, family and colleagues. So the notion of Jonathan Nolan having already seen his brother’s latest film does make a lot of sense. CinemaBlend just recently caught up with the Fallout producer, during which we broached the subject of the older Nolan’s highly anticipated historical epic. All in all, Jonathan didn’t hold back his feelings on the film:

Needless to say, Jonathan Nolan didn’t hold back when sharing his thoughts on his sibling’s movie. After we asked for further clarification regarding whether he’d seen the whole film, Nolan also said this:

That’s a ringing endorsement if there ever was one, and it makes me even more excited for The Odyssey. For those who aren’t familiar, the film is adapted from Homer’s ancient text and sees the Greek king Odysseus embark upon a perilous journey to return to his wife and son in Ithaca following the Trojan War. This film marks yet another instance of Christopher Nolan telling a story set in a different time period. Nolan has enthusiastically discussed the film, and that feeling aligns with his lifelong love of cinema, which Jonathan reflected on:

Christopher Nolan has certainly come a long way and, with this latest movie, he’s testing not only himself but the boundaries of filmmaking. The Oscar winner shot this film entirely with IMAX cameras, and the president of the brand has praised Nolan for his technological approach. Also, unsurprisingly, the film (which is written by Nolan) features Matt Damon in the lead role and includes a star-studded ensemble cast including Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Jon Berenthal, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron and more.

The first trailer for The Odyssey teases a truly epic-looking film, and I wish I could’ve been a fly on the wall when Jonathan Nolan screened it. Of course, my time to see it will come as will fans’. On that note, check out the latest movie from the older Nolan sibling when it opens in theaters on July 17, 2026.

The creative process is a mystery to be sure, inspiration can come from anywhere, and sometimes things that usually wouldn’t have a correlation can come together. Some of Jonathan Nolan’s inspiration came from an unlikely place, but it does make sense. In fact, the producer spoke out about how The Dark Knight Rises was actually influenced by Fallout, the longtime video game that has seen a secondary surge in popularity thanks to a TV show.

Nolan's been out and about doing press for the 2024 Emmy-nominated TV series, and his inspiration and his thought process in writing and directing his episodes, which fans can watch with an Amazon Prime subscription. While the interview itself was about Season 1, it does get me excited for Fallout Season 2's release in 2025, and it did give me this interesting Dark Knight Rises tidbit.

In fact, he's worked on a handful of science fiction projects, working on the screenplays for a few movies such as The Dark Knight Rises, one 2000's best movies. When asked about his experience with the Fallout franchise, and if he has played the games before taking on the show, Nolan stated his reasoning for joining the Amazon Prime project was because of his love for Fallout 3.

In an interview with Looper, he addressed a previous joke he made about his love of the game. Prior, he'd joked The Dark Knight Rises was delayed a bit literally because of Fallout 3. This led to the topic on whether or not the Fallout franchise led to any inspiration for his work on The Dark Knight. He noted:

This isn't the first time that Jonathan Nolan has connected The Dark Knight Rises to Fallout, as he previously talked about both projects and how they gave him a feeling they'd "built this thing." Now the show is heading into Season 2, they want to see "how far it can go." He touches on that again in this interview when he talks about the "pond" getting "bigger and bigger."

Likewise, with some minor spoilers for The Dark Knight Rises, the last part of the Batman movie does include a Gotham that can be compared to the bleak wasteland of Fallout, all the way down to a nuclear bomb being dangled over the heads of its citizens. Going back to rewatch the second half of the movie with this perspective, as a watcher you can see small ways that the wasteland melds into Gotham. It isn’t entirely in just the backdrop and the staging, but more in the bleak hopeless feeling some of its citizens have despite the fact that this is supposed to be a time of freedom. Fallout in some ways almost feels like the aftermath: "What if" Batman doesn't save the city?

It’s a new turning point in media, especially superhero movies, where we start addressing the ideas of what the world would look like without the heroes that were relied upon. It’s not a totally new way of looking at things, but as a fan of both Fallout and Batman myself, I personally like to see the more out there points of inspiration from other forms of media, like video games.

It’s refreshing to peek behind the curtain of the creative process, and see connections that wouldn’t otherwise be made. And I personally am very excited to see what Nolan and the other writers cook up for Fallout Season 2 when it hits the 2025 TV schedule.

High atop my list of most anticipated upcoming video game adaptations is the second season of Fallout. The sci-fi drama, which premiered on Prime Video earlier this year, not only paid homage to its source material but managed to expand upon it in interesting ways. Much of that success can be attributed to the efforts of EP Jonathan Nolan and his team of collaborators, who are currently starting their work on the second season. Speaking of which, Nolan just compared his experience working on the new season to both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. And seriously, as if I needed another reason to be excited about the new episodes.

Before creating Westworld and Person of Interest, Jonathan Nolan collaborated with his brother, Oscar-winning director Christopher Nolan, on The Dark Knight Trilogy. Nolan recently reflected on his time helping to craft some of the best Batman movies while discussing his work on Fallout Season 2. The producer specifically explained that following Season 1, he now has a mindset that can be likened to the way he felt amid Batman Begins’ release and the start of work on its sequel (which is one of the best movies of the 2000s):

These comments, which the Interstellar scribe shared with TheWrap, are very exciting to me, because they suggest that the EP is feeling good from a creative standpoint. After having a successful debut season, some creatives may be tempted to become lax and rest on their laurels. But it sounds like the Prestige writer is ready to really push this show to its limits. During his recent interview, he also explained what he and his team learned from working on those first eight episodes and teased how that’ll inform what’s to come:

Fallout Season 1 ended on an eventful note and, as a result, its characters were left in intriguing positions. Ex-Vault dweller Lucy McClean and the Ghoul team up to pursue the latter’s murderous father, Hank, who’s on his way to the iconic New Vegas. Another notable development involves squire Maximus being dubbed a knight by the Brotherhood of Steel after (falsey) being credited with killing New California Republic commander Lee Moldaver. And let’s not forget that Lucy’s younger brother, Norm, learns that Vault-Tec employees have been kept in stasis in Vault 31.

Given these storylines, Jonathan Nolan and co. have a lot of ground to cover from a narrative standpoint moving forward. The fact that Nolan sounds as creatively invigorated as he was when he worked on Batman Begins and The Dark Knight could bode well for Season 2. And, if the finale was any indication, the new episodes could murky up the waters even more, as Dark Knight did for its own trilogy – which is a notion that really excites me.

While you wait for Fallout Season 2, binge the first batch of episodes with a Prime Video subscription now. You can also check out the 2024 TV schedule if you’re looking to tune in for some of the fresh series that are headed your way this fall.

Fallout quickly became a runaway hit for Amazon Prime Video (one of the best streaming services), and for good reason. The post-apocalyptic drama series featured a compelling story filled with entertaining characters. Not only that, but the show proved to be a worthy take on the major video game franchise that inspired it. Nevertheless, executive producer Jonathan Nolan laid down some important ground rules when it came to adapting the game. At least one of the most important regulations was broken by the makeup and costume teams, though, and, funny enough, fans caught it before Nolan and the writers did.

What Rule Did Jonathan Nolan Institute During The Making Of Fallout?

Based on what Jonathan Nolan shared about Fallout during and after its first season’s run on the 2024 TV schedule, he knew exactly how he wanted to approach the show. Part of that plan, unsurprisingly, was to remain true to the source material, though he didn’t want to be beholden to it, it seems. Michael Harvey, the head of the show’s makeup department, explained as much when he spoke to our sister site, PC Gamer. As Harvey (a 2024 Emmy nominee) discussed, Nolan asked that the team “lean into the world for what it is, and take the elements from that world.” The makeup guru also said the following:

That’s a solid rule of thumb, if you ask me. On one hand, the games should definitely serve as guides for the development of the series. Though, at the same time, one wouldn’t just want to lean on all of that material, copying and pasting it at will. Any creators behind upcoming video game adaptations should seek to expand on the mythos of their respective game franchises.

Jonathan Nolan and co. have certainly done just that with Fallout, which features an original story and original characters. It’s no wonder that it’s been as successful as The Last of Us (which admittedly is calibrated to be very similar to its source material).

Despite everything I’ve just said, though, I’m still delighted that the costume and makeup departments were able to sneak past Nolan’s edict. And there’s a fair chance that you yourself may not have even caught on to this.

What Was The Easter Egg That The Crew Managed To Sneak In?

The rule-breaking infraction in question comes into play during the fifth episode of Fallout’s first season. Within the episode, Lucy MacLean and Maximus team up as they make their way across the dangerous wasteland that was once the United States. The two eventually have to cross a bridge, where they have a run-in with two raiders. While Lucy tries to persuade the pair to act peacefully, violence ensues. The strangers are killed and Maximus is wounded. So what does this have to do with the Easter egg? Well, one of the raiders was dressed up exactly like a character from one of the games.

Michael Harvey went on to explain that it was costume designer Amy Wescott who “dressed this [actor] like somebody right out of the game.” The makeup artist then explained how he took advantage of that opportunity:

The character from the show was named Rink and was based on Fallout 4’s Cricket, an arms dealer who frequented certain locations within the game. It was quite amazing that Jonathan Nolan and the writing team weren’t even aware of it. However, as Michael Harvey explained avid Prime Video subscription holders (who happened to be fans) took to the Internet to gush over that sweet tidbit:

You really have to give it to those eagle-eyed fans for spotting the connection so quickly. Now, one has to wonder whether such an explicit reference might happen amid work on Fallout Season 2. My instincts tell me that Jonathan Nolan may not be the biggest fan of that idea, given his rule. But, then again, maybe the crew will (or have already) found a way to sneak in another nod to the games, which I’m sure the series devotees would love.

The first season of Fallout is available to stream alongside the best shows on Prime Video.

Over the last year, we’ve gotten two magnificent video game adaptations – The Last of Us and Fallout. In 2023, we were blown away by The Last of Us, and then, Fallout premiered on the 2024 TV schedule, and it was met with acclaim too. Now, Jonathan Nolan, one of the masterminds behind what is easily considered one of Amazon Primes’ best shows, has opened up about why the success the HBO adaptation found was great for his series.

Before The Last of Us, there weren’t many incredible dramas based on video games. This show about Joel and Ellie traveling together during a zombie apocalypse was dramatic, serious and incredibly well-done thanks to Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann’s leadership and incredible performances from Bella Ramsey, Pedro Pascal and The Last of Us cast. This raised the bar for all video game adaptations that came after, including Fallout.

However, that didn’t intimidate Fallout’s director and executive producer Jonathan Nolan. In fact, it made things better, as he told THR:

This answer was in response to a question centered around the expectations the HBO show set for other projects like it. The outlet asked the director if he thought at any point “Damn, now the bar is suddenly high,” and he responded saying he wasn’t.

If anything, it was great that Fallout came after The Last of Us, because audiences likely had more faith going into it because they had gotten such a great video game adaptation last year. I know I certainly had that thought when I started watching it.

Outside of the fact that these shows are both video game adaptations set in post-apocalyptic worlds, they really don’t have that much in common.

Tonally, the Prime Video series is way funnier than the HBO project (which is a straight drama). Also, The Last of Us is a direct adaptation of the video game it’s based on, whereas Fallout took types of characters and concepts from the world of the games and created a totally new story within the world fans of the game already knew.

However, despite the tonal differences, another thing these shows have in common is their reception.

Immediately critics were all in on The Last of Us, and so were fans. Folks loved how true it was to the game, and after the first season came to a close, the HBO adaptation picked up all the Emmys, proving that it’s both critically and culturally beloved.

The same thing happened with Fallout. Critics love the Amazon adaptation, and fans of the game are overjoyed about how accurate it is to the source material. Now, we’re wondering if it’ll get the same awards love as The Last of Us, personally, I think it can.

Overall, I can see why Nolan was excited to follow in The Last of Us’ footsteps. While it might have been easy to be intimidated by its success, it also served as a beacon of what video game adaptations can be. Now, we have two lovely shows based on beloved games, and fans can’t wait to see Fallout Season 2 and The Last of Us’ second season.

To go back and watch these two shows that have single-handedly set a new bar for video game adaptations, you can stream Fallout with an Amazon Prime subscription and The Last of Us with a Max subscription.

Over the course of the past year, Christopher Nolan has become more famous than ever before with Oppenheimer’s success, but his place among the biggest 2024 Oscar winners is the amalgamation of over two decades in the business. Among the movies he constantly gets recognition for, and always will, is 2008’s The Dark Knight. Touted as one of the best superhero movies ever made to date, Nolan is getting praise for the Batman flick all the time. However, the filmmaker recently admitted he’s tired of one iconic line following him. 

While speaking to Deadline, Christopher Nolan shared that there’s a major line in the beloved movie that pits Christian Bale’s Batman against the late Heath Ledger’s Joker that he's "plagued by." Explaining the line and his reasoning, he said: 

Nolan is talking about a line that Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent says while having dinner with Bruce Wayne and Rachel early in The Dark Knight before he becomes Two-Face. While the line has become massively popular since the movie’s release, Nolan can’t really celebrate it because it wasn’t him who came up with it. Actually, as he notes, it was his brother Jonathan Nolan who wrote the line, and when Christopher Nolan initially read it, he didn’t understand its potential to resonate with so many. 

Christopher Nolan often gets all the credit for The Dark Knight, but he co-wrote the movie with Jonathan Nolan, who also worked with him on the entire Batman trilogy. Additionally, Jonathan Nolan was a co-writer on Memento, The Prestige and Interstellar with his brother directing. Jonathan has also served as a writer, director and producer on shows like Person of Interest, Westworld and the upcoming Fallout series, which he actually recently compared to his work on The Dark Knight trilogy. 

Christopher Nolan comes off as a humble fellow, so the idea that one of the biggest lines isn't his, apparently is something he’s “plagued” by. Of course, we wouldn’t know who wrote what line without Nolan mentioning it, but it’s certainly interesting to hear that it's Jonathan Nolan who deserves his flowers for one of the movie’s great lines. 

As Nolan spoke about during the interview, Oppenheimer has connections to The Dark Knight trilogy because it's where his longtime collaboration with Cillian Murphy originally began. Of course in the case of the Oppenheimer cast, Murphy got to play a central role for the first time in a Nolan movie. Now, following his reflection on The Dark Knight and Oppenheimer winning Best Picture at the Oscars earlier this month, check out our ranking of the best Christopher Nolan movies.  

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While HBO’s dystopian drama, Westworld, is getting ready for Season 4, creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy are teaming up once again for a new adventure, this time for Amazon.

The Westworld creators, using their Kilter Films company, are teaming up with Craig Macniell and Clay Chapman, the duo behind SXSW horror film The Boy, to develop a horror series at Amazon, Deadline exclusively reported. Unknown is “a psychological horror anthology series that plunges into the corners of the American landscape, probing the intersection of folklore and our bloody history of true crime.”

Unknown’s first season is set to center around an estranged brother and sister, who return to the Texas Killing Fields, only to encounter a dark spirit that inhabits the region from their childhood. The series comes just a couple of years after Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy struck an overall deal with Amazon Studios in 2019. The duo previously worked on the sci-fi techno thriller drama series The Peripheral, also for Amazon.

Despite Westworld’s fourth season, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy are keeping busy with other projects. Just last year it was announced that they were developing a new drama called Sphere along with Westworld’s Denise Thé, partnering with Susan and Robert Downey Jr.’s Team Downey production company and Warner Bros. TV to executive produce the series. The show is based on the 1987 novel of the same name by Westworld film scribe and director Michael Crichton.

Although it may seem like Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy have their hands full with the various shows they’re working on, don’t expect them to neglect Westworld or their other projects. Due to the ongoing pandemic and the fact that Westworld shoots overseas, as well as the seasons generally coming out roughly two years apart, Season 4 of the HBO series might come at a later date than usual, making it easier for the creative duo to focus on other series, while still working on Westworld.

It’s “unknown” when Unknown will make its debut on Amazon, but, luckily, it looks as if we’ll soon have plenty of shows from Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy to choose from, whenever they release. It will be interesting to see whether or not Unknown or the other projects will include Westworld stars, or have similar themes. But, either way, it doesn’t look like Nolan and Joy are going to be slowing down any time soon, especially with their giant deal with Amazon.

Should fans worry about Westworld’s future? At this time, Nolan and Joy seem to be trying to keep busy while Season 4 is still in development, so it’s safe to assume Westworld fans have nothing to worry about and should just look forward to a new series to become obsessed with.

For more on what to watch in the coming weeks, check out our 2021 TV summer premiere schedule!

Despite Hollywood-wide production shutdowns in March, studios have been moving several projects along behind the scenes. While viewers wait for more news on Westworld Season 4, the creative team behind HBO’s hit series are bringing another Michael Crichton adaptation to the premium cable channel.

Westworld’s Denise Thé as well as Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan’s Kilter Films are developing a new drama called Sphere, partnering with Susan and Robert Downey Jr.’s Team Downey production company and Warner Bros. TV to executive produce the series. Per Deadline, Thé will also write the pilot for the series, which is based on the 1987 novel by Westworld film scribe and director Michael Crichton.

Sphere will follow a team of scientists who are exploring the depths of the ocean only to discover a deadly mystery, while also learning that things (and the people they’re closest to) may be “most alien.” It’s a vague summary to be sure, but it sounds incredibly fascinating nonetheless.

From what we know of the novel, the scientists are actually exploring an unidentified spacecraft that has been found at the bottom of the ocean and the story transforms into a psychological thriller thereafter. It’s unclear if the TV series will include the spacecraft, but I’d wager that it will.

The project is currently in the early stages of development, which means that there's still no word on who will be cast to star in the adaptation. However, in addition to executive producing and writing, Denise Thé will also serve as showrunner on the upcoming series. Besides writing for Westworld Season 3, Thé is most notable for her work on Person of Interest and Gotham, which followed Bruce Wayne’s years before becoming the vigilante known as Batman. She has also written for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles among a few other projects.

This isn’t the first live-action adaptation of Sphere. The novel was adapted into a film back in 1998 that starred A-listers like Sharon Stone, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah, and Samuel L. Jackson. The movie didn’t do all that well at the box office, however, and was negatively received by critics at the time. I’m hoping that the TV adaptation of Sphere will do a better job with the material than the film did.

I think the involvement of Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s Kilter Films is also worth noting, considering that the pair (along with their company) inked an overall deal with Amazon in 2019, leaving Warner Bros. behind to develop TV projects like Fallout with the streaming service. However, it looks like they’re back to working alongside each other for Sphere, which is fine by me since we had previously gotten Westworld out of their previous partnership.

Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for updates on the HBO series. In the meantime, be sure to check out our 2020 fall TV premiere schedule for more viewing options.

Spoiler for Westworld Season 3 can be found throughout this article. The finale aired this weekend and if you didn’t catch it, you may read more than you want to in this.

What happens when Westworld exits the parks? There had been scenes outside of the parks in previous seasons of the HBO drama, but at the end of Season 2, the show made a dramatic shift into the outside world. When Season 3 started airing, most of the series was set outside of the parks, with a few exceptions, prompting many to remark that Westworld felt like a new show during Season 3. However, if you ask show creator Jonathan Nolan, we should have seen it coming.

In fact the showrunner seems a little surprised that many people have called the latest season “a reboot.” He said in a new interview the reactions to Season 3 have “amused” him, defending the series for what it is:

Westworld Season 3 wrapped its run last night with a dramatic end to the Dolores (at least the version that was wreaking havoc) and a scene featuring Bernard awakening covered in dust after learning he held the key Maeve was so desperately searching for all season. It set up for Season 4 that could go in a lot of directions and from what Jonathan Nolan told Deadline, that’s exactly what Westworld has tried to do every single season.

I mean, I can see what he’s saying and perhaps “reboot” is the wrong way to look about it, but Westworld Season 3 felt in some ways dramatically different from its two previous iterations, which I think may be what people are trying to get at. For one example, it introduced a lot of new players in people like Serac, Caleb, Ash and even briefly Liam and left behind a lot of the characters we had grown more familiar with and cared more about.

Oppositely, a lot of what Season 3 attempted was subverting our expectations, which tied Westworld’s new season to its past iterations. We thought Dolores had implanted various host minds into other hosts; instead she cloned herself. Then, the whole Aaron Paul as Caleb subplot was clearly leading to the reveal that he’d killed his friend, although the way that panned out I thought was neatly done and different than what I expected to happen. In that way, Westworld was basically the same show.

Its setting and tone on the other hand really just felt almost completely different this go around, even given we had seen scenes outside of the parks previously, so maybe “reboot” isn’t the right word, but perhaps "amused" isn’t either. We could go back and forth about this all day, and perhaps we should be focusing on one super interesting thing Jonathan Nolan says here about the show sticking to the plan and continuing to be fearless moving forward.

We will 100% be getting more Westworld eventually and given the way Season 3 ended, I’d expect a reset once more. Back in April the subscription cabler renewed the high-profile science fiction TV series for Season 4. In the past those close to the show have noted they had five or six years of this series already mapped out, so it’s not as if this show has chosen Season 3’s direction at random. In fact, James Marsden previously said:

(Although I will point out Teddy wasn’t a part of the current season.) For now, we’ll just have to wait to see more, as it can be sometime between seasons for this show.

Major spoilers below for the Westworld Season 3 finale, so be warned!

As it goes with Westworld’s finales, the Season 3 capper wrapped up the majority of the previous episodes’ storylines while holding back on just enough to keep viewers in the dark until the next batch of narratives arrives. (HBO officially ordered Season 4, but it likely won’t bring itself online until 2022 or so.) Thankfully, enough happened to Dolores, the Man in Black, Caleb and everyone else to inspire lots of hopes and theories for the near future.

Below, I’m going to break down what happened with each of the main characters in the Westworld Season 3 finale, all while trying my damnedest not to completely disrupt the loop. Let’s start with the queen bee herself.

Dolores

Though many viewers have gone all season assuming that Evan Rachel Wood’s Dolores’ main goal was to completely eradicate humanity in order to give the Hosts a larger world to exist in, that wasn’t exactly the case. Instead, she wanted to give humans a chance to regain their free will, which she did in part by having Aaron Paul’s Caleb and Thandie Newton’s Maeve completely erase all of the data within Rehoboam.

For those wondering why Dolores picked Caleb as her Judas cow (a callback to one of Dolores’ scenes in the series premiere), it was because she’d actually crossed paths with him years earlier. Westworld dropped the reveal that the ever-mysterious Park 5 was actually used to run military training programs, which Caleb was part of. Dolores recognized Caleb’s ability to make non-monstrous decisions when he was the one soldier in his unit who spoke up against raping all the female Hosts that were “saved” in the training exercises. Yes, Dolores was one of those Hosts, and that was one of the moments of beauty that she chose to hang onto, as opposed to all the ugliness.

Unfortunately, the finale ended similar to how the penultimate episode did, with Dolores’ “dead” body. Although in this case, Dolores had all of her memory and other data stripped from her circuits, so it’s not clear what the character will be like when/if she gets rebooted by Caleb or someone else. Here’s hoping she continues seeking out the beauty in humankind, rather than honing in on the disarray.

Caleb

Rather than losing his mind over everything like a normal person might, Caleb rolled with the punches and accepted Dolores’ explanation that he was to be a savior for the human race. Weirdly enough, Caleb’s brief ascension to being The Man felt very much like an extension of Fight Club’s Project Mayhem, with the paid-for-hire henchmen calling him “sir” and setting things up without his direct knowledge.

Caleb did kill quite a few people in the Westworld finale, but he still chose to realign himself with humanity after seeing that the final Solomon A.I. strategy would result in multiple mass-casualty events, eventually leading to civilization’s collapse in just a century, give or take a few decades. He didn’t want to go that far with the revenge plot.

Still, L.A. was in full riot mode by the end (though ahead of the post-credits sequences), with Caleb and Maeve standing together and watching explosions going off in skyscrapers across the city. I know I’m not the only one who picked up even more Fight Club vibes from that ending, with The Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind” replaced by Pink Floyd’s “Brain Damage.” It’s not quite clear what Caleb’s next move(s) will be, though.

Maeve

For the first chunk of the finale, Maeve just had the objective to find Dolores in order to get the data that everyone thought was in her head. She definitely wasn’t wholly on Serac’s side in all of this, considering their motivations weren’t exactly matched all the way. But things changed as Maeve came to understand Dolores’ actions, and also discovered that the O.G. Host didn’t actually have the key coordinates to the Sublime as was expected.

Near the end, Dolores gave Maeve the final ultimatum: to pick a side between the humans and the Hosts. Serac didn’t give Maeve that chance, using his override button on her after Dolores blipped out. Only Maeve got a little more powerful in that moment, blowing past Serac’s kill-switch so that she could do some killing of her own.

In the end, she was a bit less perturbed than Caleb to watch all of the explosions happening. And once more, Maeve is heading into a between-season hiatus with the promise of the Sublime on the horizon, but feasibly no closer to her reach.

Serac

Finally a step behind everyone else in this season, Vincent Cassel’s Serac was pushed to the brink in trying to gain possession of the Sector 16 data, fully turning Maeve against him in the process. As his plan was falling apart, Westworld finally dropped the big character reveal that fans have been theorizing about all season.

Serac has been a living human, and not some kind of hybrid being. However, he was indeed a puppet of Rehoboam in another big way, in that he had (presumably for years) been guided entirely by the program’s voice. Seemingly every word he spoke was provided to him, and every move he made was dictated by his predictive A.I. That reveal made me want to immediately go back and watch all of his previous scenes to pick up on that odd reveal.

It’s not likely that Serac will have any big scenes in the future; he was shot in the midsection after Maeve usurped his control. Even if the blood loss wouldn’t be what took him out, Serac would likely be in the fast lane to insanity after having to readjust to living with his own thoughts and making his own decisions without Rehoboam’s supervision.

The Man In Black

During the main runtime of the Season 3 finale, Westworld barely brought out the Man in Black. His showdown with Bernard and Stubbs was short-lived, with him getting a shot off on Luke Hemsworth’s Stubbs, and escaping once the local authorities arrived. The still-wounded William was later seen drinking extremely expensive whiskey and seeking his finances, which had been frozen after he was declared deceased.

After the credits rolled, though, Ed Harris got more time to play. He showed up at (presumably) the main Delos office on a mission to kill off any hosts in the building, but he was intercepted by a mostly re-skinned Charlotte Hale (Chalores), who had a different plan in mind. In fact, she had an entirely different Man in Black to show off.

The human William was somewhat pleased to come face-to-face with a Host that was willing to fight back in full, having long sought such a thing from the parks. However, it was an ego blow to learn just how easy it was to replicate his own basic-ass impulses in Host form. Not that he had long to think about it, since the Man in Black 2.0 killed off his predecessor by slitting his throat. That moment not only set up the character’s presumably violet path in Season 4, but it also gave quite a bit more context to the Season 2 post-credits scene in which an A.I. William meets up with a Host Emily (as portrayed by Katja Herbers.)

Bernard

Having not been shot by the Man in Black, Jeffrey Wright’s Bernard was surprised to learn that the SFPD officers who arrived at the scene were more of Dolores’ minions. Kudos to creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy for bringing back Clifton Collins Jr. for this surprise cameo, since his character Lawrence/El Lazo hadn’t been seen since Season 2’s seven installment. He wasn’t the only surprise guest star, either.

Bernard was revealed to be the Host that actually had access to the Sublime, but before he took advantage, he was tasked with paying a visit to Arnold’s real-world wife Lauren, whose existence was finally confirmed, with Suits’ vet Gina Torres aged up through makeup. Lauren was in an assisted living home, and was clearly dealing with memory issues. Of course, she became lucid enough to have the emotional conversation about Lauren and Arnold’s dead son Charlie that Bernard needed to have in order to move forward.

Not that he did much moving when going forward. With the goal of discovering the answer to what comes after the end of the world, as a way of rebuilding the outside world, Bernard sat on the edge of a motel bed and sent his brainpower into the Valley Beyond. The very last shot of Westworld’s finale brought viewers back into that motel room, only it was obvious that a long time had passed in the interim, as Bernard’s entire body was covered in dust. (For me, it was one of the more disturbing images that Westworld has delivered yet.) That said, viewers have no clue how long he was gone, nor what he learned during his voyage.

Chalores

As many viewers suspected, the revamped clone Chalores had indeed found a way to refabricate her skin after most of it was burned away. It appeared the vengeful Host also completely reneged on all of the emotional growth that she’d gained while getting attached the Charlotte’s human family. That love’s all gone now, at least as far as she was willing to admit to Dolores.

Beyond her newfound disgust and disinterest in humans, Chalores also seemingly tapped into some of Dolores’ powers. She appearing to the latter as a hologram that no one else could see, and she was also able to directly stall Dolores’ motor functions from a distance.

However, it wasn’t until the post-credits scene that audiences got a bigger idea of what Charlotte was up to. Along with crafting another Man in Black, Chalores was revealed to be building something of a Host army, with an untold number of new Hosts being printed in that Delos facility. Something tells me she’s interested in more than just repopulating Westworld and the other parks.

Stubbs

Perhaps expectedly, Stubbs didn’t get a big resolution within the Season 3 finale. He was initially shot by the Man in Black, but survived that attack, and reappeared later in the episode inside the motel room with Bernard, laid out in a bathtub full of ice.

With some booze at his disposal, Stubbs was left in the tub during Bernard’s trip to the Valley Beyond. He asked Bernard what he saw upon first gaining access, hinting at Stubbs' own interest in making that his fate, but Bernard powered down almost immediately afterward. It’s unclear by the end whether or not Stubbs is still alive when the dusty AF Bernard returns from his trip to the A.I. afterlife.

Ash & Giggles

Though they never transcended mere side character status, Lena Waithe and Marshawn Lynch were enjoyable throughout Season 3 as Caleb’s RICO colleagues Ash and Giggles. Thankfully, they did make reappearances in the finale, though both of them should have probably just stayed home.

As Caleb was making his way to Incite during the episode’s big riot scene, Giggles showed up to run crowd control, while Ash was handling demolition. Unfortunately, Giggles was shot by one of the riot cops, and though Ash stayed behind to keep tabs on him, he didn’t appear to make it. Not long after, Ash was seen being hauled off by the cops, so her future isn’t looking too bright either. That said, Caleb could always find a way to let her loose in Season 4, if the story calls for it.

With more than enough questions to keep viewers talking, Westworld Season 3 has now run its full cycle, though it can definitely be rewatched as many times as necessary via HBO, HBO Go or HBO Now. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for any news concerning castings or plot information for Westworld Season 4.

Most actors in Hollywood would be lucky to be part of just one of the most critically acclaimed shows on TV, but Breaking Bad vet Aaron Paul is returning to a similarly high-profile spotlight for Season 3 of HBO's Westworld. Between Paul's casting and the sci-fi drama's first trailer, all but zero information was revealed about his character, but now we finally have a few official crumbs to chew on that add context to the visuals we've seen so far.

Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy have at last started offering up some vague clues about what fans can expect from Season 3 of the densely twisty series, which no longer resembles its source material at all. For one, they shared that Aaron Paul's character is named Caleb, and that he's a construction worker living in Los Angeles. Here's how Nolan described Caleb's basic Westworld arc in Season 3:

Considering the first two seasons of Westworld took place entirely within the Delos Desintations parks, viewers got used to only seeing a limited selection of human character types. One one side were the park's multi-leveled employees, and on the other were the opulently wealthy miscreants who frequent the park's vice-driven narratives.

In Season 3, however, Dolores' unprecedented excursion into the "real world" – we can't really assume anything is real about this show – will provide one of our first looks at everyday people in this futuristic America. And on first pass, Caleb sounds like he might be one of the less heinous characters that viewers could hope to stick with. His status as a blue-collar construction worker stands in contrast to the sci-tech world of Delos, and it's easy to imagine that his value system is also on the opposite end of the spectrum from Westworld's frequent visitors.

It becomes even more interesting once we look back to the Bible's Caleb, since there are lots of things about this show that skew religious. In simple terms, Caleb was one of the spies that Moses sent to Canaan to study the land, the people and the local plant-and animal life. He argued his beliefs that Moses' people should go and overtake the area, while the other spies thought it to be an impossibly difficult conquest. Without getting any deeper, I don't think it's so difficult or absurd to find Westworld-esque relevance in Caleb's Good Book highlights.

Of course, Westworld is still as much about Dolores' story as it is about anything else, so expect her to be as much of a driving force as Caleb is, even if she's not used to getting behind the wheel. (Or whatever people use to drive around in this society.) And Lisa Joy told EW that Season 3 won't be employing any early time shifts to shorthand Dolores' experiences, confirming that the premiere picks up immediately after the events of Season 2. In Joy's words:

Part of Dolores' plan almost definitely involves rebuilding a host body for Bernard and whatever other artificially intelligent cohorts she illegally transported into the real world. From there, her exact actions will be anyone's guess, though it might be safe to assume that she'll try to understand some of the history behind her creators Arnold Weber and Robert Ford.

Speaking of guesses, though, Jonathan Nolan interestingly shared that Season 3 apparently isn't intended to set fans up for endless hours of theorizing.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Nolan raises more questions than answers with that proclamation, such as what that notion of "makers" is in this context. Does he mean it in a general sense, as in Dolores is now fully a minority within humankind? Or is he speaking more specifically about Arnold and Robert and whoever else may have been involved with the early days of the Argos Initiative?

Also, considering Caleb's last name wasn't revealed by Jonathan Nolan or Lisa Joy, how long do we have to wait before we start theorizing about who Aaron Paul's carpenter character will be related to within the Westworld narrative? He's clearly not rich enough to be part of the Delos family, but perhaps he could be related to William in some way. Let's not forget that Season 2 also ended with that weird flash-forward in which it's seemingly revealed by Host Emily that at some point, William's consciousness was put into a host.

At this point, literally any form of conjecture can be made about Aaron Paul's Caleb and how he'll bond with Dolores after meeting her. Westworld's first Season 3 trailer hinted at that first meeting. Check it out below!

With Vincent Cassel having been cast as the new big bad, Westworld Season 3 doesn't yet have a premiere date, but it's set to hit HBO at some point in 2020, which likely means we'll be waiting a while before getting a more specific premiere window. Thankfully, there's lots of good summer TV and fall TV to get through before 2020 sneaks its way over, and hopefully the Breaking Bad movie fits into that somewhere.

Westworld Season 2 may have felt like a fever dream for some viewers at points in the season, but, towards the end, everything started to come together. Now that the dust has settled and fans have had time to digest exactly what happened, showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy are dropping hints for what's next for Bernard and Dolores. Nolan, in particular, revealed that fans can expect Season 3 to be a "radical shift," as the hosts set out into some new and very real uncharted territory:

Jonathan Nolan revealed that Dolores and Bernard have big plans now that they're out of the park and into the real world, and that Westworld is setting out to tell a story that couldn't be done with human characters. Specifically, it sounds like Nolan is hinting at the hosts having a long-term plan that could feature some significant time jumps that make a human lifetime seem like nothing.

While that could be bad news for some of the show's human characters that fans have grown fond of, the thought of Westworld traveling further into the future certainly sounds like an interesting concept. A plan that spans "eons" can't be thwarted by characters like William or Elsie unless they, too, plan on becoming hosts to stop them. William is certainly just crazy enough to undergo some human to host transformation like that if it means "beating" Robert Ford at the game, and with that post-credits sequence at the end of Season 2, it's possible he's already started the process.

Jonathan Nolan's reveal that Westworld's hosts have grand long-term plans in the real world might be a massive reveal in any other show, although it's likely nothing compared to the things the showrunner couple is keeping secret. For example, fans still have yet to find out how the host of Tessa Thompson's Charlotte Hale plays into all of this, and why Dolores freed up the vessel in order to return to a host body more similar to her own. Lisa Joy didn't reveal what's going on or who might be currently residing in Hale's host form, but did confirm to THR they knew Thompson's path in Season 3 well before they killed off her human character:

Lisa Joy didn't reveal who might be in control of Tessa Thompson's host character, although Westworld fans would likely guess it's Robert Ford. That might be a bit too on the nose for Joy and Nolan, although it's hard to come up with many other characters on the series who are capable of a "diabolical" story arc. In either case, both Joy and Nolan seem thrilled to have Thompson in the role, and are excited to see her grow alongside her new identity in Season 3.

Westworld has already been renewed for Season 3, but fans have no time-frame of when to expect it. Check out all the things coming to television in the meantime, and keep track of all shows coming over the next few months with our summer and fall premiere guides.

Ten years have passed since Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight debuted in theaters, and many DC fans consider the full Dark Knight trilogy nearly perfect. Beginning with Batman Begins in 2005 and concluding with The Dark Knight Rises in 2012, the series featured some incredible practical effects and insanely innovative marketing campaigns. The iconic music of Hans Zimmer largely defined these campaigns, but Jonathan Nolan recently opened up and admitted that he spent a decade trying to get his brother to include The Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" in a Batman movie trailer. Nolan wrote:

So it seems that Jonathan Nolan was far more intrigued by the possibility of blending pop culture into The Dark Knight trilogy's marketing campaign than his brother. Though the franchise mostly stuck to the music composed by Hans Zimmer throughout its trailers and previews, the younger Nolan brother consistently pitched the idea of using The Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" in the previews for a Batman movie, which, in retrospect, definitely does seem like a fitting song for Batman's corner of the DC lore.

Of course, as Jonathan Nolan mentioned during that Reddit AMA session, he did eventually get to use "Paint It Black" by The Rolling Stones in his own project: Westworld. Check out the Westworld rendition of the song, below!

In the end, The Dark Knight trilogy has arguably become timeless because of how disconnected it feels from other forms of pop culture. If anything, the National Anthem used in the trailers for The Dark Knight Rises was the closest thing to pop music ever to make it into a Dark Knight trilogy trailer. With little to no mainstream music or references in the films, Christopher Nolan created movies that now seem to stand the test of time.

That said, the silver screen DC world hasn't come to an end yet. In fact, the DCEU will continue later this year with the premiere on James Wan's Aquaman on December 21!

Major spoilers below for anyone who hasn't seen the entirety of Westworld Season 1.

On Sunday night, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy brought an early Christmas present to HBO viewers with the slam-bang of a finale for Westworld's freshman season. It was as if they'd made a host out of Spinal Tap's Nigel Tufnel, as the narrative was turned up to 11, and fans were led to expect complete chaos to come from Season 2. Nolan, no longer the secret-keeper he was ahead of the sci-fi drama's release, further explained it as a big change coming to the second batch of brain-squeezing episodes.

It could technically still be a theme park if the specific theme is "fucking humanity up, ya heard?" But Jonathan Nolan's point is taken. No amusement is to be had for humans in the upcoming season of Westworld, at least not the ones who spent most of their time putting hosts through all manner of hellish debauchery. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking Sylvester is going to be a confederate to the hosts as Robert Ford's new and extremely dangerous narrative hits its stride.

It makes complete sense that Westworld would almost need to take a striking shift in story direction for Season 2, considering the finale left most of the main characters in a place where few of Season 1's machinations could be used logically. Now that Delores' has completed her memory recollection and realized her inner Wyatt-ness, all of which cemented William's identity as The Man in Black, William's story doesn't need to go on, though other elements from that timeline will likely be used. As well, Maeve's current state of sentience and our knowledge of the Delos labs means none of those elements necessarily need to return either. Especially not if everything is going to hell in an early host model handbasket on the outside.

So many characters' fates are up in the air, from Ford himself - consider the possibilities of Anthony Hopkins' genius creating a host version of himself to carry out that horrifying assisted suicide - to the long-gone Elsie - she could still be alive, thanks to new clues on one of the show's websites. And there are plenty of other answers left to come about everything we've seen thus far. But the main thrust of Season 2 is going to center on what could very well be one of the more intriguing rebellions in science fiction, with Westworld's hosts no longer bound by the programmed morals that held them back from mutilating people so many times in its first year. Present Day William should invest in a bulletproof and hatchet-proof vest.

Westworld was easily one of the best new shows of the year - see where we ranked it - but it sadly won't be back in front of our totally human and not factory-built eyeballs until either late 2017 or 2018, so we'll have to keep those Season 2 discussions extremely fruitful for the near future. And while we're waiting check out our midseason premiere schedule to see everything the small screen has coming in early 2017.

Spoilers below for anyone who hasn't watched Westworld's Season 1 finale.

Westworld's web of mysteries tied up some loose strands in the masterful and viewer-heavy season finale, though it also created more questions, and one of the most discussed scenes was Maeve's Big Decision on the train. It occurred after Bernard's shocking reveal that much of Maeve's seemingly independent actions this season were actually part of an updated narrative, and instead of escaping as originally intended, Maeve exits the train to seek out her daughter from her memories. You might have missed one big visual clue here that co-creator Jonathan Nolan, who also directed the episode, explained:

Astonishingly, Jonathan Nolan seems to be giving audiences a flat-out answer to one of the finale's more confusing sequences in his interview on the Vulture TV Podcast. Maeve thought for a while that she was the one working with all the pieces to the puzzle, until Bernard peeled yet another curtain back to show she was still being manipulated. The troublesome part of that reveal was Maeve destroying the monitoring device Bernard was holding before he could say what the next part of the escape plan was, especially since it wasn't a move that she made of her own volition. So from that point until the last time we saw her, it wasn't extremely clear where Maeve's true motivations rested. At least, unless you were paying close attention to the camera work, which Nolan claims is the key to it all.

Part of Westworld's beauty is in its near-exclusive use of the extremely smooth Steadicam, so it was easy to miss the brief transition to the more bouncy and swaying hand-held camera as Maeve stepped off the train. (Though in retrospect, it's kind of impossible to miss, as you can see on this video.) So now we know for sure that Maeve is apparently no longer working under anyone's control but her own, though that might not remain the case forever, given how this show works. We already knew bad things were coming in Season 2, and Independent Maeve is going to be a lot of people's worst nightmare.

Like most viewers, I definitely have my own theories and guesses concerning characters and plots, but I was completely befuddled by Maeve's actions in this scene, and had no real inclination to lean to it being true free will or it being dictated by programming. Knowing what she does, going back to look for her daughter-who-isn't-really-her-daughter seemed like a default piece of programming to me, but I guess escaping on the train was the "real" narrative for her. Now I'm desperate to know what she was meant to do out in the normal world, but that might never get answered. Sigh.

Regardless of whether you're the one making the decisions or not, you will choose to watch Westworld when it returns to HBO for Season 2, which sadly isn't happening until late 2017 or 2018. Hopefully the show will continue teasing us with character fates in the meantime. Plus, a lot of quality TV is coming before then, and you can see what some of that looks like with our midseason premiere schedule.

HBO's Westworld is partly about fantasies, though it's far more about sensual and libidinous kind of fantasy than that of wizards and mythological beasts. Still, the show's theme park location potentially allows for all manner of settings to get tackled, and that could one day include the world of Westeros from Game of Thrones. Westworld co-developer Jonathan Nolan shared that author George R.R. Martin actually pitched that to him and co-creator Lisa Joy a while back, and Nolan's response to the idea doesn't exactly rule it out.

It would have been pretty bizarre for Jonathan Nolan to announce that Season 2 of Westworld would focus entirely on certain settings from the Game of Thrones universe, and I imagine most people not wearing tinfoil hats expected a flatter denial to the possibility of a quasi-crossover. After all, prestigious HBO dramas aren't known for Sweeps Week gimmicks, so this would have to be something far more substantial than the recent cameo-swap from Fox's Brooklyn Nine-Nine and New Girl.

But Westworld is a show set up so that other disparate locations could easily make their way into the narrative. Sure, Season 1 is focused solely on the western flavor, because that's what the source material was set up for. But there are more worlds to be explored, such as Future World and Medieval World (and whatever else Nolan and Joy come up with). It wouldn't take much of a mental leap to see how Game of Thrones' mythology could be the inspiration for a tie-in area of the park. It would likely take all kinds of other leaps, such as financial ones and legal ones, but creativity isn't thwarted by such things!

However, Lisa Joy does have a specific qualm with devoting a world to the Song of Ice and Fire universe. Here's what she told EW.

Wait, dragons aren't real? Nothing is good about life anymore.

With only two seasons left for Game of Thrones on HBO, fans have been desperate to hear about new ways for the hit drama's universe to live on. Discussions about a spinoff have happened, though nothing is moving forward on that front. George R.R. Martin also has thoughts about a spinoff, so he's just as antsy as fans to keep his epic saga alive outside of book form. Perhaps his influence will be enough to convince Nolan and Joy to make some form of crossover connection happen, even if it gets watered down to a throwaway comment in the Season 2 premiere. It would be a seedling.

While Westworld is still a ways away from attracting the massive audience that Game of Thrones is known for, the sci-fi drama is already a success for HBO. The third episode brought in the biggest ratings yet, with 2.1 million viewers tuning in on the night of the airing, and it's possible that audience will only get bigger as the show goes on and people catch up to the widespread acclaim for the star-studded series. Giving Ned Stark his own Host character could do just that.

Westworld airs Sunday nights on HBO at 9:00 p.m. ET, with Game of Thrones Season 7 not getting here for like another 14 years or something. (Or maybe next summer, which just feels like it's 14 years away.) To see what else is debut in 2016, head to our fall premiere schedule.

Major spoiler warning for anyone who hasn't yet watched Person of Interest's excellent series finale.

After five seasons of knuckle-grinding tension and action-packed rescues, CBS' under-championed drama Person of Interest came to an emotionally driven end tonight with an episode packed with everything viewers could hope for. Well, everything but another season. Is it possible, though, that the smiling Shaw's pay phone call at the end was a sign that the show could live again in the future? Here's how creator Jonathan Nolan put it.

So that's about as intelligently wishy-washy an answer as one would expect, in that Nolan is saying that he wrote the ending as a way to continue the story within its own fictional universe, but not necessarily in any live-action form that TV viewers can tune into on a weekly basis. That's exactly what a good audience member should want from this concept, too.

Yes, Reese died, and his death was absolutely meaningful enough that its weight could easily hold down any successive chapters from being opened. But as touching as it was to watch Finch and Reese reflect on their years together, and as incredible as it was to realize that Reese and The Machine went behind Finch's back to keep him safe, he was merely a character who entered the world of Harold Finch and his creation, and his absence wouldn't stop me from enjoying a spinoff in another location where Shaw, Fusco, Bear and eventually Finch (because come on!) are once again bringing order to the chaotic world around them. Assuming it would happen.

Nolan does mention another point in the show's past when a spinoff might have been something to immediately jump on.

And another 13-episode season? No? Dammit.

People like me thought that maybe Person of Interest was setting itself up for a companion series a few episodes back, when it was discovered that The Machine had set up a secondary team in Washington D.C. comprised of people that Finch & Co. had saved in the past. It opened up the chance to take this concept anywhere in the world, and while co-showrunner Greg Plageman told TVLine "Never say never" on that front, he also said that the whole point of meeting the other team was just another way to broaden the unseen universe of the franchise while addressing an oft-referenced question about The Machine's reach. How disappointing.

Sadly, it appears as if this really is the end of Person of Interest, unless someone comes along and makes a wildly admirable last-second save to bring it back for more. Is there anyone like that out there? Are there any Root-voiced machines that could help me narrow the list down?

Spoilers below for Person of Interest’s most recent episode.

Just because most of network TV’s dramas have wrapped up doesn’t mean the twists and turns are done until summer officially starts. Person of Interest entered the home stretch of its furiously focused fifth and final season with the tragic death of Amy Acker’s brilliant hacker Root. But while it was shocking, I think we can all agree that it at least made sense for the character at this point so close to the end, especially after hearing what showrunner Greg Plageman had to say about it.

Exactly. If Person of Interest had forced Root’s exit through a more meaningless situation, or if she’d just been the unseen victim of an explosion, then it would be a fan’s duty to raise the pitchforks and decry the decision. But this fate has been in the cards for Root for a while now, as past gunshot wounds and other close calls have prepared us for, and she went out protecting Finch in “The Day the World Went Away.” If the show happens to make the blundered decision to kill him off in the next episode, then everything we’ve ever done in our lives will have been in vain. Not quite, but Root’s sacrifice seriously needs to be held on a pedestal and not undercut by future events.

Can anything really undercut hearing Root’s voice coming out of the Machine? Not in a million years, but my point still stands. And co-showrunner Jonathan Nolan realizes the importance, as he told this to TVLine.

It also helped that she was able to go out after one of this series’ most intense and exhilarating action sequences, in which Root was able to show off her talents at using her boots to steer while taking out bad guys through a car sunroof. Not many characters get to do such a thing. Nolan also said that one guy was indeed supposed to be very clearly decapitated during that sequence, but they ran out of time during the shoot.

Sadly, the duo also said that Root definitely isn’t the only loss that Team Machine is going to deal with before Season 5 wraps up in a few weeks. (We also watched Enrico Colantoni’s Carl Elias go down in this episode, but he was not quite always a good guy.) Even with these deaths coming, though, we’re still hoping that Nolan and Plageman are setting things up so that Season 6 could exist one day in a different place.

What did you guys think of Person of Interest’s action-packed 100th episode?

Riding high on the likes of The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, and Interstellar, Christopher Nolan is one of the biggest filmmakers working today. That, of course, wasn’t always the case, and in 2000, the little known director burst onto the scene with Memento, a twisted indie mystery thriller with a clever hook. Despite only being 15-years-old, and a movie that still totally holds up, Memento is getting a remake, because why not.

AMBI Pictures recently acquired the back catalog of Exclusive Media Group, a library that also includes Donnie Darko, Sliding Doors, Cruel Intentions, and hundreds more titles. According to The Hollywood Reporter, following this windfall, they gave a green light to the Memento remake. In a statement, AMBI head Monika Bacardi said:

With a remake like this, of a fairly well-known, fairly recent film, the biggest question is, as usual, what is the new movie going to bring to the table? Though it was a decent hit, especially by independent standards, and garnered Academy Award nominations, it wasn’t massive, though it left a sizeable footprint on popular culture and has remained influential regardless.

The original film, directed by Christopher Nolan and co-written with his brother, Jonathan Nolan, stars Guy Pearce as a man with short-term memory loss. Unable to form new memories due to an injury, he uses an intricate system of notes, photographs, and even tattoos to keep facts straight as searches for the man who murdered his wife. Told in reverse order, the structure and approach were unique and innovative at the time, but it inspired so many copycats that, so many years down the line, it’s going to be interesting to see if it still feels fresh or if we’ve grown weary of it by now.

Aside from the fact that a Memento remake is apparently happening, there’s not much more to go on. It’s still early in the going, and there don’t appear to be many people involved just yet—there’s no word on a writer, producers, director, that sort of thing—but you can be we’ll be keeping an eye on this as it develops.

Christopher and Jonathan Nolan went into their interpretation of the Batman mythos with a vision. Yet for all of its visionary greatness, there was one monologue written for Batman Begins that was so good, yet so out of place with the film, it could have only been featured in a teaser trailer.

IGN picked up on a Reddit thread that's been circulating the internet, in which Jonathan Nolan commented on a random post containing the teaser trailer for Batman Begins. Unprompted, he revealed this little tidbit about the now famous dialogue that gave the world its first taste of the then new Batman:

For reference, here's the original Batman Begins teaser trailer, from 2004:

To be fair, Jonathan Nolan's assessment of why this Batman Begins monologue was used specifically for the trailer makes sense. Batman and Bruce Wayne are identified primarily as a character who is obsessed with avenging the death of his parents. If you're interested in creating a by the numbers, and possibly mediocre Batman film, you can very easily follow that formula. However, that's not what Batman is all about, especially in the Nolan films.

The tone of the monologue, while sounding very much like a stereotypical Batman monologue, wouldn't exactly fit in the Christopher Nolan's original film for one big reason: Bruce Wayne never intended to be Batman forever. While this point was highlighted more in The Dark Knight, Batman Begins does end with the hint of Bruce quitting his crime fighting ways when he feels Gotham is safe enough. That right there shows that the vigilante that "will not stop until it gets its revenge" in the trailer is different than the character we saw in the final film.

Sometimes there's that one line or one scene that you wish could work in the final product. The teaser trailer monologue to Batman Begins sounds like one of those moments that Jonathan Nolan would have loved to put on the big screen. If he were working on a Batman film closer to the works of Frank Miller's run with the character, then maybe Nolan would have been able to keep that line, and even dirty it up a little more. In the meantime, Batman Begins still more than works without that sequence, and it holds up as the bedrock to the entire Dark Knight Trilogy.

Batman Begins is currently available on DVD, Blu Ray, Digital HD, and for the time being – Netflix.

If there’s one consistent sticking point throughout Christopher Nolan’s entire filmography, it’s that his endings certainly give the audience something to talk about. His most recent opus, Interstellar, is definitely no exception to that rule; especially considering how deep the ending reaches into the bag of tricks that is quantum mechanics and storytelling. Yet after all of the debate that’s been had over what exactly happened at the end of the film, there’s still some life in the argument yet, thanks to some remarks his brother and co-writer Jonathan made a couple of days ago.

Fair warning, the ending to Interstellar is about to be dissected. If you haven’t seen the film, bookmark this page and come back after you’ve witnessed its glory.

The Nerdist recently covered an event at CalTech’s Jet Propulsion lab where Jonathan Nolan and scientific advisor/producer Kip Thorne were fielding questions from an audience of science professionals and students. Naturally, the front of the queue contained the lucky participant who would ask the million-dollar question about just what happened at the end of Interstellar’s story. Shockingly, Interstellar ended in a whole different manner under Jonathan Nolan’s pen.

In Jonathan Nolan’s original vision for Interstellar, we still see Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) head off into the depths of Gargantua’s gravity well and enter the Tesseract dimension of space/time existence. However, once he tries to send the data back to planet Earth, we see the Tesseract collapse on him – thus ending the film before the emotional coda where he reunites with his daughter, as well as the assumption that Amelia Brand’s colony on Planet Edmunds is off to a good start. From the sound of it, the film probably would have had a couple of lines tying up Cooper’s fate, accepting his demise in the name of humanity, and Hans Zimmer's score would swell to carry the picture to a dark, but bittersweet close.

Which leaves the question of just where did the rather Spielbergian ending Interstellar lands on come from? Jonathan Nolan’s initial zinger when asked about the ending says it all, as he told the audience member who asked him about just what happened on screen, "You’ve got the wrong brother."

As it would turn out, Christopher Nolan is the architect of the film’s kinda, sorta feel-good ending, which is a testament not so much to who’s vision won out in the end, but the sort of collaboration the brothers have in their work. What’s funny is, again, this is a project that started under Spielberg’s wing, and could have gone full tilt Dark Knight with grit and realism – which definitely sounds like the direction Jonathan was heading towards with his script, until Nolan used that Spielbergian influence to bring an emotional close to the film’s events. Though, after all of this hubbub about which Nolan brother is responsible for Interstellar’s ending, it does make us wonder… who was responsible for the ending to The Dark Knight Rises? Sorry to open old wounds, but it’s a question that needed to be asked.

Regardless of what you think happened, or which version of the story you choose to believe, Interstellar is available on Digital HD, with the Blu Ray and DVD dropping on March 31st.

In the annals of TV history, few things have been paired together less than “sci-fi and HBO,” which makes the network’s latest pick-up one of the most promising projects in all of cable. HBO has officially ordered to series a small screen remake of Michael Crichton’s 1973 classic Westworld, and it boasts the finest ensemble cast this side of Game of Thrones. Bring on the sexy robots!

HBO clued future audiences in to this pickup via a string of tweets and Vine videos, which is obviously how an actual Westworld theme park would advertise its existence. The cast is reportedly signing multi-year deals as well, which leads one to think that HBO is planning on keeping this one around a while, critical acclaim pending. Here’s how the network decided to announce the news, with a picture I’d never have matched up with the film or its subject matter.

Someone correctly guessed that it was related to Westworld, and HBO then released a Golden Ratio clue and the video clip below.

This is just one of the glitchy clips seen on HBO’s Twitter page, giving us our first glimpse into this futuristic series. We’re obviously in for some rough times ahead when it comes to mixing humans and electronics, as this version of Westworld will feature a bevy of robot hosts at the central amusement park who can be killed off and reset with new character traits, giving the all-star cast a chance to showcase an assortment of personalities. Because you just know things are going to go very wrong for these characters.

Evan Rachel Wood, in a rare shift to TV, will play Delores, a Western-themed droid who somehow figures out exactly what she is and how sadistic this theme park is. James Marsden plays a gunslinger host named Teddy who’s looking for love. For his first major TV role, Anthony Hopkins stars as Westworld creator and creative director Dr. Robert Ford. Ed Harris plays the mysteriously evil Man in Black. And the cast is rounded out by Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Shannon Woodward, Miranda Otto, Rodrigo Santoro, Simon Quarterman, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Angela Sarafyan, Eddie Rouse and more.

For its creative team, Westworld boasts creators/writers/executive producers Jonathan Nolan (of the Dark Knight/Interstellar Nolan brothers) and Lisa Joy (Burn Notice), who also have a project in development at HBO adapting Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. As well, Jerry Weintraub and the Bad Robot team of J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk are on board as executive producers. I’m pretty sure we already know more about this project than we did about Interstellar and Star Trek Into Darkness the week before either film came out.

HBO plans on bringing Westworld to viewers in 2015. Will you or your artificially intelligent servants be watching?

With the release of Interstellar this past weekend, the name Christopher Nolan was on the tip of everyone’s tongues, but it was actually his brother and frequent collaborator Jonathan Nolan who first put the epic sci-fi film’s script together. Jonathan Nolan’s next expansive sci-fi tale will be a mountainous effort, as he’s reportedly taking on icon Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy for HBO. Set the bass on your TVs to “bwwmp.”

According to The Wrap, Warner Bros. TV is bringing the project to HBO, though no one has gone official with it yet. The prestigious cable network, who already has a pilot going with Nolan, first picked up the rights to the novel series earlier this year, and the screenwriter was publically talking about the Foundation series recently. That’s the trifecta for “something happening,” I’d think.

Foundation, first published in 1951, opened up the futuristic narrative with different connected stories about mathematician Hari Seldon and his ability to predict certain elements of the future by way of extreme math. The nutshell premise: he foresees the fall of the Galactic Empire, the combined name of the human-filled Milky Way galaxy, and a 30,000 year Dark Age before society rises up again. His solution? A foundation of artists and engineers to jumpstart civilization much quicker. It’s Interstellar to the nth degree. Why wouldn’t Nolan be the guy doing it?

The award-winning original trilogy – which is comprised of Foundation, Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation – is what’s at play here. Should it make it to series, its potential success would probably urge HBO to snatch up the rights to the follow-up sequels and prequels. The world needs a really meaty, high-quality sci-fi epic on TV. Which isn’t to knock anything on the air currently, or even Syfy’s impressive upcoming schedule, but “the Foundation series on HBO by a Nolan brother” is nearly as grand scale as you can get, which is to say nothing of what it may actual be, quality wise.

Can the world handle TWO Jonathan Nolan HBO projects? That’s right, in case you didn’t know, he’s already working on an adaptation of Michael Crichton’s Westworld for the network. That project has a stunning cast, including Anthony Hopkins, James Marsden, Evan Rachel Wood, Ed Harris and Thandie Newton, among others. HBO usually shies away from straight genre material, so here’s hoping both of these projects are worth their weight in viewers.

This isn’t the first time Asimov’s Foundation series has been approached for a visual project. Roland Emmerich was going to lend his Independence Day finesse to a feature version of the story. That fell apart, and Sony then went with indie filmmaker Dante Harper, who first wrote the script for Edge of Tomorrow. Someone is bound to bring the appropriate scale and density to this series.

Can Jonathan Nolan, who was part of the reason why Memento, The Prestige and The Dark Knight were so memorable, turn these interwoven stories into a TV series that will gain an audience?

The Dark Knight is now regarded as one of the seminal blockbusters of the last decade. It’s the perfect meshing of action, plot and characterization that also sees its director Christopher Nolan and actors Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and Michael Caine at the peak of their powers. But now Christopher Nolan has revealed that it was almost all so different.

While out promoting his most recent effort, Interstellar,, Christopher Nolan was inevitably asked about his beloved work on his Dark Knight saga. During his discussion with The Daily Beast he intriguingly revealed that The Dark Knight was almost a completely different movie. After it was noted how similar the actions of Edward Snowden and the NSA leaks were to The Dark Knight’s conclusion, Christopher Nolan explained that it was almost so much more prescient.

The scene in question from The Dark Knight that Christopher Nolan is referring to is the revelation that Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne/Batman has overseen the development of a device that can track the location of the residents of Gotham courtesy of their cellphones. Morgan Freeman’s Lucius Fox is rightfully disgusted that Bruce has had a hand in the creation of this probing machine. Of course Bruce Wayne has only reverted to this invasive action because of the terror being orchestrated by Heath Ledger’s The Joker. Once Batman has brought The Joker to justice the machine then implodes, much to the joy of Lucius Fox. You can check out the High Frequency Generator machine in all of its glory below.

Jonathan Nolan, who has had a hand in writing The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises,,Inception and Interstellar, went on to create Person Of Interest in 2011. The show, which is currently in its fourth season, revolves around Jim Cavaiezel’s John Reese using an omnipresent surveillance system to track down violent crimes across New York City. The show has received mostly positive reviews and has managed to attract a consistently large audience. However it hasn’t truly managed to grip the country with its content, despite the revelations from Edward Snowden that started in June 2013. Which probably proves that Christopher Nolan was right to dismiss it for the blockbuster sequel after all.

While Christopher and Jonathan Nolan spent years improving the stock of DC Comics characters up on the silver screen, it appears that their time making superhero-related movies has come to an end. The latter, who scripted both The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, has revealed in an interview that he and his brother are no longer affiliated with the growing DC Cinematic Universe.

Speaking with Coming Soon at the press junket for the upcoming Interstellar, Jonathan Nolan was asked if he and his brother would have any further involvement with the development of DC Comics-based films, and while the screenwriter's answer was brief, it was also pretty definitive. That being said, he also played a bit of politics and kept the door open for a possible return to the growing franchise somewhere down the line. Said Nolan,

As we learned at San Diego Comic-Con last year, Christopher Nolan is currently attached as an Executive Producer on Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but these new comments basically tell us that he and his brother won't be involved in any of the DC Comics movies that will be coming out between now and 2020. Fans will certainly be disappointed by this news, as it was the vision of the Nolans' that helped resurrect Batman's big screen presence after the disastrous Schumacher years, but at the same time they did complete a full trilogy of films and it's hard to blame them for wanting to move on to other creative endeavors.

Of course, Jonathan Nolan's comments also force us to wonder what it would actually take to bring him and Christopher Nolan back into the DC Comics filmmaking world. For example, it looks like the Ben Affleck version of the Caped Crusader in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a completely different take than the one featured in the Nolan trilogy, but what if the DC Cinematic Universe were to open up the multiverse at some point in the future and there was some kind of continuation of Nolan's movies through crossover? Christopher and Jonathan could not only be brought in for creative consultation, but maybe even to direct/write as well. Anything like this will only happen way, way down the line, but it's just proof that there are interesting options available!

Are you upset that the DC Cinematic Universe and the Nolans are planning on going separate ways, or do you think it's the right call for both parties? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Some television trends, like dating competition shows, will never work for me, but I’m firmly behind any and all movie stars that want to make the trip to the small screen. It should surprise no one that HBO has lured big names such as Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins and the Emmy-nominated Evan Rachel Wood to its pilot re-imagining of Michael Crichton’s 1973 classic Westworld.

It should be noted that the pilot order itself is news, as HBO had previously only granted a pilot production commitment last year. This project comes not only from executive producer J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot, but from screenwriter Jonathan Nolan, who worked with his brother Christopher on such lauded films as The Prestige and The Dark Knight. He wrote this Westworld update with his wife Lisa Joy, who will also executive produce. The project can also tout producer Jerry Weintraub (Ocean’s Eleven, The Karate Kid) as part of its executive squad.

With such talent (and big wallets) behind the camera, it’s encouraging that we’ll get thesps like Hopkins and Wood onscreen. According to THR, the pilot’s logline reads as “a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin.” Robotic tiger rawr!

Hopkins will take on his first recurring non-miniseries TV role ever as Dr. Robert Ford, the genius madman who conceived, created and programmed everything in Westworld, an amusement park meant to appease humanity’s robot-whipping-and-sexing whimsies. He’s not someone you’d want watching your kids, but you might want to bring their broken toys to him. Wood, meanwhile, is one of the series’ leads, and she’ll play a western farm girl (robot) named Delores Abernathy who is completely unaware that her life is a digitized lie. Of course, that blissful ignorance won’t last long, as she will soon discover the truth behind her existence.

FilmDivider reported the other day that the network had set out its casting net, and James Marsden’s name was also in that mix as someone approahced for the male lead. Assuming their intel is legit, the male bot will be a quintessential adventure hero, whose love for Delores is never attained, as he is programmed to get killed daily by the park’s guests, allowing them to take control of her.

Not that the Westworld film was a beacon of sunshine, but you just know HBO is going to turn this story into the darkest allegory known to man and machine. With hits like The Leftovers and Game of Thrones serving as exercises in doom and gloom, a story about helpless robots performing endless sins isn't exactly a walk in the park.

Nolan is also set to direct the pilot, which will presumably go into production later this year.

After his brilliant string of performances last year brought him thisclose to an Oscar nomination, Matthew McConaughey seemed guaranteed to move on to bigger things than ever-- and now, that first big thing may have come along. Deadline reports that Christopher Nolan has offered McConaughey the lead role in Interstellar, the project he's set up as his first effort since the conclusion of the Dark Knight trilogy.

In true Nolan fashion we know almost nothing about the story, beyond the one-sentence description revealed in January that it will "depict a heroic interstellar voyage to the farthest borders of our scientific understanding." Jonathan Nolan, Nolan's brother and frequent collaborator, has been developing the project since 2007, when Spielberg was set to direct it, and only earlier this month, after reshaping the script to include one of his own ideas, did the elder Nolan sign on to direct his brother's script. Deadline adds the detail that McConaughey's potential character is named Cooper, which tells us even less about the character than the fact that he wants McConaughey to play him.

As Deadline notes, "There's no deal yet, but who says no to Nolan?" That person could be McConaughey, who was burned badly by the big studio portion of his career that lead him to nonsense like Sahara and Reign of FIre. Only by teaming up with directors like Richard Linklater (Bernie), Jeff Nichols (the upcoming Mud) and William Friedkin (Killer Joe) has McConaughey been able to take control of his career. But Nolan is not your average blockbuster director, and McConaughey surely knows that the high profile-- and the paycheck-- of a giant movie like this one would almost definitely take him in the right direction. We'll be thrilled to see this work out-- and of course, still damn curious about what this movie actually entails.

While we try to figure out if he indeed will be involved with Warner Bros.' plans for a Justice League movie, and even if he'll bring back Christian Bale as Batman, Christopher Nolan is moving on to a directorial effort that has nothing to do with comic books-- and, in fact, returns him to the kind of original storytelling that made him famous.

We've heard since mid-January that Nolan was planning to direct and write Interstellar, based on a script written by his brother, Jonathan. Now Deadline reports that not only has Nolan committed to the project, but he's set a release date of November 7, 2014, with an IMAX release planned. The movie is apparently so huge that it takes two studios to make it-- Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. will be teaming up for the project, with Paramount distributing in the United States and Warner Bros. handling it worldwide.

As you might imagine, they're not revealing too many other details about the story, other than that it will "depict a heroic interstellar voyage to the furthest reaches of our scientific understanding." Sounds something like Prometheus, but knowing Nolan, it's bound to be a lot more complicated-- and potentially head-spinning-- than that. The November 2014 release date isn't far away at all, so expect some casting news and maybe a few more plot details about Interstellar in the coming months.

Fans of Christopher Nolan are generally in awe of his intellectual approach to modern cinema. Be it experimenting with chronology to dizzying effect in Memento or trusting broad audiences to follow the complicated machinations of Inception, Nolan seems to bring a bit of class to genres that are often overrun by crass commercialism. So, we really shouldn't be so surprised that he and his screenwriting brother Jonathan Nolan have found inspiration for the finale of their Dark Knight cycle in a work of classic literature.

Coming Soon reports Nolan has confessed that nothing less than Charles Dickens' classic novel A Tale of Two Cities influenced the development of The Dark Knight Rises. If you haven't read this hallmark of high school assigned reading, don't worry, neither had Christopher Nolan. That is until Jonathan—or Jonah as his brother calls him—handed him the first draft of The Dark Knight Rises, which came in around 400 pages and told the director, "You've got to think of A Tale of Two Cities which, of course, you've read." Christopher responded, "Absolutely," but as he read the script and was "a little baffled," he realized he actually hadn't ever read the classic. "Then I got it, read it and absolutely loved it and got completely what he was talking about... When I did my draft on the script, it was all about A Tale of Two Cities."

Speaking on particulars, Jonathan explained he was attracted to Dickens' portrayal of a society in upheaval over class warfare. "A Tale of Two Cities was, to me, one of the most harrowing portrait of a relatable, recognizable civilization that completely folded to pieces with the terrors in Paris in France in that period. It's hard to imagine that things can go that badly wrong."

For those unfamiliar, A Tale of Two Cities split its focus between London and Paris, exploring the social injustice that led to the French Revolution and paralleling it with life in England. To give a thorough insight, the book follows several characters, and it seems so will The Dark Knight Rises as Nolan has confessed, "What Dickens does in that book in terms of having all his characters come together in one unified story with all these thematic elements and all this great emotionalism and drama, it was exactly the tone we were looking for."

Does this mean true Dark Knight devotees should brush up on the novel? Probably not. Don't get me wrong, doing so could provide a unique insight into Nolan's filmmaking process, but it's highly unlikely more casual moviegoers would be lost if they don't delve into the Nolan brothers' literary inspirations. Still, I'll be curious to see what sort of meme response will come from the super specific band of fans who adore both Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy and the works of Charles Dickens. Seriously, bookworms, tweet at me.

The Dark Knight Rises opens in theaters on July 20th.

There is probably no script in the world that more people want to get their hands on than The Dark Knight Rises. Christopher Nolan's follow up to his incredible blockbuster sequel from 2008, fans are absolutely desperate to find out who the main villain in the film will be and what happens in relation to Batman and the city of Gotham. Apparently people are so desperate that they've begun posting news of a fake script online. Believe us when we say that the script, which you may have heard is being circulated, is not real. For that matter it's not being circulated, because there is no script at all out there, fake or otherwise.

Being repackaged as a scooper email and spread by all sorts of different sources, the supposed script leak actually began on the forums of Superhero Hype, where a user named "Saint Sinner X" claimed that he got his hands on a script and randomly dispensed obviously fabricated plot points. According to the poster, all of the previously rumored characters in the film, including Hugo Strange, Killer Croc, Harvey Bullock, Black Mask and Talia al Ghul, play a role, with Black Mask becoming the new mafia boss, Killer Croc being his main henchman, Strange pulling all of the strings, and al Ghul looking to avenge her father's death. Sound a little too manufactured? That's because it is.

Going even further, Batman-News and Batman On Film have debunked the script leak, the latter site having contacted Warner Bros., who said that the story is false. The truth is that we will not see a script for The Dark Knight Rises until they want us to see a script for The Dark Knight Rises. There's no "insider" at WB emailing it to his friends and I can guarantee that there is an extremely limited number of people who have even touched the paper its written on, let along had the chance to read it. If you come across this story anywhere else online, be sure to ignore it.

The selection process for a Superman director has been as up and down as any casting for a superhero film. Since it was announced that Christopher Nolan would be producing the project, there has been plenty of speculation as to who would take the reins, be it Christopher's brother Jonathan, Chris Columbus or someone else entirely. Apparently the list is down to five.

Deadline has revealed that Nolan and producer Emma Thomas have begun meeting with a short list of directors for the project that have included Tony Scott, Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let Me In), Jonathan Liebesman (Battle: Los Angeles), Duncan Jones (Moon), and Zack Snyder. Some members of the list, however, already have prior commitments, including Liebesman, who has signed on to direct Clash of the Titans 2, and Scott, who has four other projects on his plate at the moment. This leaves Reeves, Jones and Snyder, who appear to have open schedules, though it's possible that this isn't a finite list.

Certainly an interesting mix, no? Fair arguments both for and against everyone above can be made, but I think that the most intriguing one is Snyder. His storytelling skills may not be fantastic, but few directors can spin movies that are as visually beautiful. Throw in the fact that the story is being taken care of by the team that includes the Nolans and David S. Goyer and you may have a fantastic combination. Xerxes can sit on a shelf for a little while. Let's make this one happen.

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/UPDATED-Clash-Of-The-Titans-2-And-Deadpool-Still-Don-t-Have-Directors-But-They-re-Getting-Closer-20421.html

The script for the next Superman film has been written and there is talk that Jonathan Nolan is on top of a list to direct it, but rumors have not yet been flying as to who will play the Man of Steel. Fans have made suggestions ranging from Jon Hamm to Tom Welling for the role, but there are many out there that want to see Brandon Routh, who played the role in Bryan Singer's Superman Returns, come back to the role, and the actor can be counted amongst them.

Talking with the actor at a round-table interview for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Routh said that he has not yet heard anything about the Christopher Nolan-David Goyer written reboot, but would love to play the character again.

When told about an internet groundswell supporting his return, Routh said that he wants it to “turn into a tsunami,” adding “I think the brothers Nolan are both very talented and so that makes it a different kind of film that would be than Bryan’s vision, which I think was a very nice film that I’m very proud of."

Superman Returns didn't exactly wow critics or audiences but it's nice to see that Brandon Routh isn't the kind of actor to burn bridges. He's seems to have genuinely loved playing the iconic role and doing it again wouldn't be just for the paycheck. So what do you think? Do we want to see Brandon Routh back in the cape?

Even with the reports pouring in claiming Christopher Nolan’s brother Jonathan will be the man to direct the new Superman movie, every single one is oozing with skepticism. The latest information comes from The Playlist and while the site calls their source a good one, still mentions that there’s a chance their news that little Nolan is the frontrunner to direct Superman: Man of Steel might not be true.

Even if Nolan really is the top guy on the list that doesn’t mean he’s free of competition. The Dark Knight co-writer, David S. Goyer, is also in the running, however, there’s a chance he might be too busy with another superhero project. This is too bad because Goyer is responsible for this script and Warner Bros was hoping to save some cash and have someone pull double duty, writing and directing. Apparently the Wachowskis were also approached to get behind the lens, but they weren’t interested.

Here’s a little tidbit that is almost guaranteed to be true: big news will come during Comic-Con. Perhaps the director decision? The Playlist’s source sounds pretty sure that Goyer and Nolan are the two to keep an eye on. Considering Christopher is overseeing the project and likes the idea of Jonah directing it, I’d put my money on Nolan being the man for the job.

Wrapping things up is a little something that will likely clog the Internet once the director gig is assigned, casting. Warner Bros will reportedly go with an unknown for the lead role because they want a guy who they can secure for two additional films. An actor not being considered? Zachary Levi. There have been rumors floating around that he’d don the cape, but this source says that’s complete garbage. The source did say, "There is a list knocking around, but its nothing major and really worth nothing more than a fan wish-list."

I wish I could just completely dismiss anything I hear about this project, but the buzz about Jonathan Nolan directing is so strong it’s hard to believe the concept won’t come to fruition. A part of me even wishes this whole idea will just disappear before we’re stuck with another Spider-Man or Captain America casting frenzy. Who knows? Maybe we’ll get lucky and the director and star will be announced at SDCC.

Even though there's absolutely no solid news about a new Superman film other than the fact that Christopher Nolan will be shepherding it at some point, the rumors have been flying fast lately. There was crazy talk that Chris Columbus might get the job directing it, which was quickly shot down, and then much more logical speculation that Jonathan Nolan would get the job. While nothing is still official, Moviehole has dug up some further evidence that points to the other Nolan brother.

They got in touch with an unnamed source at Warner Bros. who claimed the following:

And apparently they're even talking about casting, considering a TV star "that no one is thinking of, but everyone will be thrilled with if he pulls on the blue tights." No one has actually tested for the part, but if there are serious conversations going on about casting, odds are a director is probably guiding it-- and apparently there's a better than average chance that it's Jonathan Nolan having those conversations.

So there you have it-- there's no way of knowing anything before, but you can probably safely hope that the next Superman will happen under the excellent guidance of a Nolan brother. Now if only we could start getting some actual news on Batman 3, we'd really be in business.

With Comic Con looming, rumors are bound to start zipping around the tubes at warp speed about all the nerdiest stuff that nerds can think of. I use the term “nerd” in a fully non-derogatory fashion as I plan to spend most of my evening alone in front of a glowing LCD screen playing World of Warcraft and writing about movies. Nerd is me.

The latest bit flung at us from the rumor mill is that Jonathan Nolan will be stepping into the director’s chair for big brother Christopher’s Superman reboot. Rumored since the project fell into Nolan's hands, this will be Jonah’s first time stepping away from the pen to get behind the camera. The brothers have worked together a few times before as a writer/director team, so this seems like it would be a logical step for the pair as they both further their film careers, hopefully for our benefit.

Geek Tyrant has a source inside Warner Bros. who is claiming that Jonah is attached to the film and already working on pre-development stuff, but as much as they trust their source, they aren’t dropping this as truth just yet.

Also smuggled out of the WB vault is news that some casting has begun for the film and Zach Levi (of Chuck fame) has stepped in for an audition. It’s not confirmed that he tried out for the role of Clark Kent, but a young star like him looking for a breakout role would surely be going after the lead. I’m still holding out to see Brandon Routh get another shot since I thought his Clark Kent was about as Christopher Reeves-y as you could get, but my hopes will surely be dashed soon enough.

Comic Con starts on July 22nd so we probably won’t have to wait that long to get confirmation on either of these rumors. WB has enough to show off at the conference to keep the nerd masses sated but hopefully hungry journalists will squeeze a bit more info out of them during their panels. Stay tuned for full coverage from SDCC beginning next Wednesday.

Ever since Christopher Nolan came aboard to guide the future of the Superman franchise, talk about the project has been growing. Nolan has said that he and writer David Goyer have come up with an idea that puts the classic DC character in a modern context (read: post-9/11), and rumors have swirled that either Goyer or Nolan's brother Jonathan would direct. Now, a new name has been thrown into the mix and it likely won't make a lot of people happy.

Superman Homepage is reporting a rumor that Chris Columbus have been offered the director's chair for the next installment. According to "a source inside the studio," Columbus is viewed as "the right fit" by Warner Bros., and that nobody from either DC or WB things that Goyer is "good in that arena." Columbus' previous films include Adventures In Babysitting, Mrs. Doubtfire, and the first two Harry Potter films.

If they're going to go for a director from the Harry Potter movies, why on Earth would they choose Columbus? Both Sorcerer's Stone and The Chamber of Secrets are viewed as the worst of the six films thus far. Yes, he is a director who has worked on multiple franchises (the other being Home Alone), but it's hard to imagine that the normal tones used by Nolan and Columbus would do anything but clash. This is, of course, an unverified rumor. Let's hope that it's a false one.

Director Christopher Nolan has danced around Batman 3 almost since the first reel of The Dark Knight unspooled. There have been rumors and vague proclamations, but till now no one has even been able to confirm that Christopher Nolan will make another Batman movie, let alone actually start work on it any time soon.

Tonight though, now that Nolan’s done with Inception, the waiting is over. In an interview with MTV Chris confirms that not only do they have a release date picked out for the next Batman in 2012, he’s hard at work writing the script. He says, “We know we're aiming for 2012 [as a release date]. That's been talked about. We're just working on the script, really. My brother has been hard at work on it for quite some time. It's based on a story that myself and David Goyer have written.”

That’s the same trio that came up with the script for The Dark Knight and it sounds like they’re going about it in the same manner. David Goyer and Christopher Nolan came up with the story for The Dark Knight and then Jonathan Nolan wrote it with input from Chris. It worked once, let’s hope it works again. If it does, it’ll be the first time any third entry in a superhero franchise has actually lived up to expectations. With the exception of a scant few movies like Toy Story 3 and Back to the Future 3, third movies in any franchise are almost always a disappointment. If anyone can buck the trend, they can.

This also means that the endless string of Batman 3 casting rumors might actually start to make sense now since, you know, they’ve actually started thinking about who might be in it. Somewhere in Jonathan Nolan’s laptop, maybe in a cleverly hidden Word doc, is a name like “Oswald Cobblepot”, “Edward Nygma”, or my personal pick “Basil Karlo”. Stick with us over the next few months to find out which of Batman’s villains have made it into the new script.

Check out the full interview with Nolan, in which he discusses where they’re at with the next Batman, embedded below:

Thus far Christopher Nolan's participation on the new Superman movie has been mostly rumor-- rumor coming from reputable sources, of course, but nothing confirmed by either the studio or Nolan himself. But today The LA Times got Nolan to sit down and talk about his plans for the Man of Steel, and appropriately enough for the guy who pulled off The Dark Knight, he's feeling confident.

Hilariously, it was writer's block on the third Batman film (which Jonathan Nolan is working on as we speak) that got Christopher Nolan on board Superman to begin with. As a writing exercise, "[David S. Goyer] basically told me, ‘I have this thought about how you would approach Superman,’” Nolan recalled. “I immediately got it, loved it and thought: That is a way of approaching the story I’ve never seen before that makes it incredibly exciting. I wanted to get Emma and I involved in shepherding the project right away and getting it to the studio and getting it going in an exciting way.”

Nolan also promised that the third Batman film would be the last, and that much of the original cast would be back, though we pretty much knew all of that already. "Viewing it as an ending, that sets you very much on the right track about the appropriate conclusion and the essence of what tale we’re telling. And it hearkens back to that priority of trying to find the reality in these fantastic stories. That’s what we do.”

As for Superman, Nolan quashed most of the rumors we've seen-- no Brainiac or Luthor, no evidence that Jonathan Nolan will direct it-- and promises that Superman and Batman will not exist as part of the same universe, DC Comics connection or not. The entire LA Times article is a fascinating look into a filmmaker with two giant plates spinning at once, and well worth a read-- despite the fact that Nolan is way, way too good at avoiding giving out details.

For a year and a half now the Internet has been devoid of actual news about the next Batman film, and no, we're not above making our own stories up-- see the rumor that Dane Cook would play the Riddler or the classic Megan Fox as Catwoman story.

But as we draw closer to the two-year anniversary of The Dark Knight and its phenomenal success, and Christopher Nolan's next project Inception prepares to open in July, it's clear there must be some work happening on a third Batman film, even if no one is admitting it. Today at Deadline Hollywood, Nikki Finke takes that assumption and runs with it, speculating that when David Goyer cited commitments to "feature projects" as his reason for leaving TV show Flash Forward, he must have meant Batman 3.

Now normally one blogger's speculation about someone else's business decision wouldn't be news-- we do that kind of stuff all the time. But Nikki Finke is uncommonly connected in Hollywood, and probably would know if the Batman 3 script was in progress, so her comment that Goyer and Jonah Nolan are "now writing the third Batman installment" could very well be based in fact.

It would make perfect sense for Goyer and Jonah Nolan to get started on the screenplay right now, but I wouldn't count on anything getting finalized until Christopher Nolan's Inception is out there, setting him free from the publicity tour and allowing him to get his own input on the script before sending it out to actors. Gary Oldman promised last year at Comic Con that shooting on Batman 3 would happen this year, and if the Nolans and Goyer move swiftly, that just may turn out to be true.