Behind every great director lies a pile of canceled projects, and Dark Knight trilogy. After such overwhelming success, it’s safe to say that Nolan no longer struggles to get movies financed–though, as many filmmakers will attest to, money is not always the be-all, end-all of whether a movie will see the light of day.
In the mid-90s, before Following, Nolan actually made another feature film, Larry Mahoney, which would have marked his debut as a director had it not been scrapped for being too niche. What that niche was is anyone’s guess as details surrounding Larry Mahoney have been relatively sparse, though it was said to lack the “noir” flavor of his subsequent films. While the movie was never released, Nolan did, in fact, shoot and edit it, so it technically doesn’t count as an unmade film, but nonetheless warrants a mention. Without further ado, here’s every unmade Christopher Nolan movie.
Howard Hughes Biopic
The most famous of Nolan’s unmade movies was a Howard Hughes biopic which he wrote sometime after making Insomnia and subsequently described as “the best script [he’d] ever written” (via Dark Knight trilogy.
The Keys to the Street
After the Hughes biopic was scrapped, Nolan went about adapting novelist Ruth Rendell’s The Keys to the Street, which was set to star Gemma Arterton. The story concerns Mary Jago, a woman living in London, who becomes embroiled in a series of grisly murders that take place in Regent’s Park. A noir-tinged thriller, it’s easy to see why Christopher Nolan was attracted to the project, and subsequently, why he left: Ultimately, he felt that The Keys to the Street was too similar to his previous movies (via Collider). It is believed that the project is still in development, but little has been announced since his departure.
The Prisoner
Prior to 2010’s Christopher Nolan’s entire oeuvre.