Jonathan Nolan Would Not Have Adapted Fallout If Not for The Dark Knight
How did Christopher Nolan’s years-old experience inspire his brother to tackle the Fallout adaptation?
Christopher and Jonathan Nolan aka the Nolan brothers have been an integral part of the movie industry for many years now. A director and a writer, they created 2008’s iconic The Dark Knight together, among other things — and according to Jonathan Nolan, it was that experience of working with his brother that helped him adapt Fallout. Otherwise, Prime Video ’s latest sensation wouldn’t have existed now.
Fallout Creator Is Cautious with Big Franchises
At an FYC screening of Fallout’s first episode, Christopher Nolan interviewed his brother Jonathan about the new TV show.
He asked about his brother’s approach to adapting a massive and well-established franchise, specifically, a video game one, to small screens, and the writer admitted he was very self-conscious with it.
“There is room to do some writing in there. I think there’s always extraordinary respect for the Harry Potter films, for Lord of the Rings films… But I think as a writer, they’re incredibly challenging because you have to try to get something from one medium to another and you really can’t change anything,” Jonathan Nolan shared.
Without The Dark Knight, There’d Be No Fallout
Expanding upon his previous statement, Jonathan Nolan explained that for him, it was the Nolan brothers’ joint experience on The Dark Knight that gave him the needed boost of confidence.
Much like the Batman franchise, Fallout is a big and well-established franchise, so he felt like he needed to tread very lightly with it.
“I don’t know if I would’ve had the guts to do it if we hadn’t gone through the experience on Batman. <...> That gave me the courage to go, ‘Ok, look, if you approach these things, not for the fans, but as a fan, find something that you love and try to treat it with as much respect as you can and trust that respect and love will show through,” Nolan explained to his brother.
He referred to their work specifically because at the time of The Dark Knight’s filming, fans were not feeling good about the movie and prematurely dubbed it a failure. Despite that, Jonathan saw his brother methodically create what would later be called the best superhero movie, and that experience gave him the courage to tackle Fallout… And we’re quite happy that things worked out this way.
Source: Fallout FYC via IndieWire