Christopher Nolan will remain at Universal, with the director set to set his next film there Oppenheimer study. His Oppenheimer Supporting player Matt Damon is also in talks to star in the film, which has a July 17, 2026 release date. The Hollywood journalist he confirmed.
The news comes amid speculation about where and when Nolan will film his next feature film. He publicly parted ways with longtime Warner Bros. in late 2020 amid its controversial Project Popcorn initiative, but over the past year has expressed openness to doing business with the studio again.
The new film is a coup for Universal, which hired Nolan Oppenheimer. The film exceeded expectations at the box office and earned Nolan his first Oscars, for directing and as a producer for best picture. He took home five more victories.
While Oppenheimer was acquired by Universal in a highly controlled auction, this new project went straight to the studio, according to sources. While details are being kept in the bunker, sources say the project is not a big-screen version of the 1960s British series. The prisonera feat contemplated by Nolan in the 2000s.
Universal had no comment.
Nolan's three-hour biopic of the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, had an all-star cast that included Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr. and Emily Blunt, as well as Damon. It grossed $975 million globally, becoming Nolan's third-biggest film at the global box office behind the Batman films. The Dark Knight Rises ($1.084 billion) and The Dark Knight ($1.003 billion). This was quite a feat, as it didn't seem like this topic could attract such a large number of viewers.
Nolan remains the rare director whose name alone can both inspire audiences to go to the movies and inspire the most in-demand actors to join a set with fewer perks (no assistants, no entourage), all for the chance to work with the main director.
As with OppenheimerNolan will also write the screenplay and produce alongside producing partner and wife Emma Thomas for their Syncopy banner. The film will be Damon's third with Nolan; he also had a small, but pivotal, surprise role in 2014 Interstellar.
Expiration first reported the news.