Christopher Nolan on making Tenet: “This is definitely the longest I’ve ever gone without watching a James Bond film”

ByJack Shepherd,Matt Maytumpublished27 May 2020

Exclusive: "I know as much about the Bond films as Alan Partridge does"

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

Christopher Nolan and John David Washington on set of Tenet. — (Image credit: Warner Bros)

Christopher Nolan has made no secret of his adoration for theJames Bond movies. The director has been linked to directing almost every recent 007 feature, yet there's still no sign of a Nolan-helmed Bond picture.

However, that love of the spy genre flows through Tenet. However, Nolan's been trying his best not to watch any movies that may overtly influence him.

“Interestingly, this is one of the first films I’ve ever made where we didn’t do any screenings,” he tells our sister publication Total Film, referring to the screenings he normally puts on for cast and crew before shooting. “And the reason was, I think we all have the spy genre so in our bones and in our fingertips. I actually wanted to work from a memory and a feeling of that genre, rather than the specifics.”

You may like

Are you a Total Film fan?Subscribe to the magazine now and get exclusives – and more – sent directly to your door/device

He continues: “This is definitely the longest period of time I’ve ever gone in my life without watching a James Bond film. My love of the spy genre comes from the Bond franchise, and the Bond character very specifically. I know as much about the Bond films as Alan Partridge does.

"It’s totally in my bones. I don’t need to reference the movies and look at them again. It’s about trying to re-engage with your childhood connection with those movies, with the feeling of what it’s like to go someplace new, someplace fresh. It actually has to take them somewhere they haven’t been before, and that’s why no one’s ever been able, really, to do their own version of James Bond or something. It doesn’t work. And that’s not at all what this is. This is much more my attempt to create the sort of excitement in grand-scale entertainment I felt from those movies as a kid, in my own way.”

Tenet adorns the cover of the new Total Film magazine (here's a pre-order link), which includes extended interviews with Nolan, Pattinson, John David Washington, Elizabeth Debicki, and Kenneth Branagh.Total Film subscribers will get an exclusive cover featuring John David Washington's protagonist, and the newsstand cover features Washington and Robert Pattinson. Check them out below.

Total Film's Tenet subscribers' cover — (Image credit: Warner Bros/Total Film)

Total Film's Tenet cover — (Image credit: Warner Bros/Total Film)

The issue is available in shops from Friday, and will also be available digitally for your tablet from wherever you get your digital mags. You can start a Total Film subscription beginning with issue 299 (the Tenet issue) by heading toMyFavouriteMagazines.

Bringing all the latest movie news, features, and reviews to your inbox

Tenet is scheduled to open in cinemas on July 17, 2020.

Matt Maytum

Matt Maytum is the former Editor of Total Film magazine. Over the past decade, Matt has worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.