In an interview with Geoff Keighley, Canadian video game journalist and host of the Game Awards 2020, film director Christopher Nolan briefly discussed what it would take to turn one of his films into a video game. Keighley tweeted an excerpt concerning Nolan's response hours after what was originally an interview promoting Nolan's latest blockbuster, Tenet.
In the interview, Nolan answers questions from film and game fans alike about Tenet, such as how he chose between a multitude of possible endings and his opinion on how he attempts to structure the sound design for his films. But the questions weren't limited to talk of Tenet, and one fan asked if he ever wanted one of his films adapted into a video game.
Nolan's response is vague but he does bring up an excellent point about similarities in the process behind creating films and games. Both take a very long time, but games often take longer. When balancing the risks and rewards of the time spent working on a project vs. the success of its outcome, Nolan seems to favor filmmaking. He also mentions the importance of creating a game that while inspired by its movie predecessor, is distinct in vision and strives for more than just faithful brand recreation.
This isn't the first time Nolan has considered turning his works into video games; he expressed interest in making a game based off of his 2010 sci-fi thriller, Inception, shortly after the movie was released and apparently got fairly far in the development process. His movies are well-suited to video game adaptations, often containing puzzles for viewers to solve as they watch or levels to be traversed, such as the dream worlds in Inception. Though the Batman: Arkham series is not directly related to Nolan's widely popular take on the Batman mythos, it is hard to believe Arkham's success wasn't influenced by the critically acclaimed films released during a similar time frame.
The good news is that even though nothing concrete seems to be in the works right now concerning a Nolan-movie inspired game, he has been involved lately in the gaming industry. Screenings of his movies The Dark Knight, Inception, and Prestige were shown earlier this year in Fortnite on the game's Party Royale mode, as was a trailer for Tenet. His most recent appearance was at The Game Awards 2020, where he introduced via video the nominees for Game of the Year. If this pattern continues and Nolan focuses even more of his time on the world of video games, a game based off of one of his beloved films might not be so far away after all.