Christopher Nolan‘s next film continues to add to its all-star cast. Starring Cillian Murphy in the title role, Oppenheimer will center on the inventor of the atom bomb, and there will be some A-list stars long for the ride. According to Deadline, Robert Downey Jr. and Matt Damon are in talks to join the production, and Emily Blunt is reportedly circling a role as well.
Damon has previously worked with Nolan in 2014’s Interstellar, but this will be Downey’s first time with the famed director. It’s an interesting choice given some choice comments Downey made about The Dark Knight back in 2008. The highly celebrated sequel to Batman Begins arrived just a few months after Downey kicked off his unparalleled Hollywood comeback by wowing audiences as Tony Stark in the first Iron Man film. Granted, Downey’s new superstar status was nowhere near cemented at the time, but that didn’t stop him from taking a pot shot at the competition by voicing his thoughts on the Nolan sequel.
Here’s what Downey told the now-defunct Moviehole via /Film:
“My whole thing is that that I saw The Dark Knight. I feel like I’m dumb because I feel like I don’t get how many things that are so smart. It’s like a Ferrari engine of storytelling and script writing and I’m like, ‘That’s not my idea of what I want to see in a movie.’ I loved The Prestige but didn’t understand The Dark Knight. Didn’t get it, still can’t tell you what happened in the movie, what happened to the character and in the end they need him to be a bad guy. I’m like, ‘I get it. This is so high brow and so f***ing smart, I clearly need a college education to understand this movie.’ You know what? F*** DC comics. That’s all I have to say and that’s where I’m really coming from.”
Obviously, there were no hard feelings on Nolan’s end, but Downey’s box office clout probably helped smooth things over real quick. That’s one way to get butts in seats, which is something Nolan is very concerned with after notably parting ways with Warner Bros. over its controversial decision to stream its entire 2021 film slate on HBO Max.
(Via Deadline)
Source: https://uproxx.com/movies/robert-downey-jr-christopher-nolan-oppenheimer-dark-knight-quote/