Christopher Nolan's Howard Hughes Biopic

[kvz5]

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/02/christopher_nolan_howard_hughes_biopic.html

After Batman 3, Christopher Nolan Wants to Make His Howard Hughes Biopic

After shooting The Dark Knight Rises, we’re told visionary director Christopher Nolan plans to return to reality — even if it’s one stranger than fiction. Insiders with knowledge of the director’s plans tell Vulture exclusively that Nolan next wants to direct a long-shelved Howard Hughes biopic he’d abandoned when it became clear that Martin Scorsese would beat him to the screen with The Aviator in 2004.

But while Scorsese’s film is understood to have been heavily based on Charles Higham’s biography Howard Hughes: The Secret Life and centered largely on the early years of Hughes' life up to 1947, we hear Nolan’s movie is based on Michael Drosnin’s Citizen Hughes: The Power, the Money and the Madness (first published in 1985), and would focus on the freakier decades of Hughes remarkably secretive and OCD-addled life.

Drosnin is a former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal who’s best known for writing the bestseller The Bible Code, but his Citizen Hughes leans extensively on some astonishing primary sourcing: Over three thousand pages of Hughes’s own handwritten memoranda, which leaked after the billionaire's office was burglarized in 1975.

As such, we’re told Nolan’s Hughes movie will covers many later events and quirks on which Scorsese’s movie punted: We'll meet the Howard Hughes who spent much of 1948 sitting naked in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel with only a pink dinner napkin covering his genitals as he screened movies from his studio, RKO Pictures, and ran up an $11 million tab; the Hughes who — obsessed with food safety — once bought every franchise restaurant chain in his home state of Texas, and who was similarly so concerned about air quality that he installed an aircraft filtration system in his 1954 Chrysler New Yorker, taking up its entire trunk; the Howard Hughes who had his hair cut and nails trimmed only once a year, and who was seemingly as addicted to Baskin Robbins Banana Ripple ice cream as he was to regular codeine injections; the Hughes who at the end of his life considered only Mormons trustworthy enough to be let into his inner circle.

Our spies tell us Nolan wants to shoot his Hughes movie late in 2012, then release it in 2014 — by which time 10 years will have elapsed since Scorsese’s Aviator, a span Nolan seems to think sufficient enough for it not to invite immediate comparison.

No word on where Nolan’s Citizen Hughes will be set up — or if it will even be called that — but we can’t imagine that after two Batman movies and Inception at Warner Bros., it won’t be green-lighted in beautiful downtown Burbank.

 

[Heisenberg]

I will never happen, but I'd love nothing more than to see DiCaprio reprise his role as Howard Hughes for this. As it takes place primarily after the events in The Aviator, it would be like a continuation of one great director's film by another.

Still, It's Nolan... I'm intrigued by the premise, and look forward to hearing more.

 

[Two-Face]

I would love to see Nolan make a Bond film staring Danirl Craig,

It great to see him make another Howard Hughes film.

 

[dark_b]

yeah this is the movie who will get him the nomination.

 

[Bunker]

Why.

 

[Rocketman]

http://img109.imageshack.us/i/champagnejd.jpg/

I'm pumped. And I hope this is a wild ride, considering it's about a psychotic illness, OCD, as well as a period piece. I bet Nolan's got some crazy visual imagery in store.

 

[DACrowe]

Hmmm...not sure how I feel about this. I loved The Aviator and think it is Scorsese's most underrated movie (well this or that King of Comedy movie) and was a near masterpiece. Plus the weakest part of the movie is the end of act 2/beginning of act 3 where Howard sits in his personal movie theater for 10-15 minutes of film time (and covers several weeks) but felt like nearly an hour. I don't know if I could take two hours of just that.

But it's Nolan, so I am intrigued and I will probably see it. However, Howard's life was more interesting in his youth and his last great triumph was flying the Hercules/Spruce Goose after thumbing his nose at Congress in front of the press. That was the climax of Scorsese's movie and he wisely chose to end the movie there. I'm not sure we want to see what comes next. Well besides the obvious: The wave of the future. The wave of the future. The wave of the future. The wave of the future. The wave

 

[Immortalfire]

Didn't we already get a movie about Howard Hughes, not that long ago?

 

[Octoberist]

I would prefer if Nolan tackled something else but he's been waiting on this for a while..

 

[dark_b]

hard to bash Nolan for making something unoriginal since the guy did Inception.

it will be the first time that i will not be intersting with hes new movie. but something original will come after this.

 

[Rocketman]

Guys, we have no clue what this movie could be like. You're all assuming it's The Aviator 2... but this is Chris Nolan. For all we know, this could be like Memento crossed with The Prestige. This will be focusing on the part that Scorsese mostly ignored. It's about a guy with a mental illness. This is Nolan's territory. There could be dream sequences, hallucinations, visually arresting scenes, etc. It's pure Nolan. Don't assume that it's "some boring biopic."

 

[Fenrir]

I'm very intrigued to see this, as Nolan did say at one time that it was the best script he had ever written. Judging by the man's talent, that is really saying something. Oh and Christian Bale for Nolan's Howard Hughes. Few actors can do OCD-riddled characters better than Bale. After American Psycho, The Machinist and Harsh Times (and to some extent even The Fighter), Bale has pretty much proven that freaky-crazy is his forte.

 

[Laderlappen]

hmm. If he wants to make a biopic thats fine but, I mean we already have The Aviator.

 

[Hurm...]

Leo for Hughes again!

 

[redfirebird2008]

Why.

How about the fact that Nolan said in 2006 it was the best thing he'd ever written, better than Memento or the Prestige? That alone is reason enough to be intrigued by it. Nolan was a victim of bad timing. Right when he was finishing his script, the Scorsese movie got greenlit. Nolan wanted Jim Carrey as his Howard Hughes. We'll see if it happens.

Didn't we already get a movie about Howard Hughes, not that long ago?

Yeah, and right when that one got greenlit for production Nolan was finishing his own script. He was a victim of bad timing. He said in 2006 during promotion for The Prestige that his Hughes script was the best thing he ever wrote, even better than Memento. But he put it on the shelf when the Scorsese flick was greenlit. The irony in this situation is that the same studio is probably going to end up producing both movies. So they crushed Nolan's dream when they greenlit Aviator, and now they might be his white knight.

 

[Man in the Suit]

hmm. If he wants to make a biopic thats fine but, I mean we already have The Aviator.

We don't have the long haired, bearded, fingernailed Hughes.

 

[Hurm...]

Maybe Nolan will finally get an Oscar nomination if he makes this.

 

[Scarlet Spider]

Nolan wanted Jim Carrey as his Howard Hughes. We'll see if it happens.

Yeah, Carrey was Nolan's choice to play Howard Hughes back then.

Personally, I'd love to see it. Always thought Carrey had the makings of a good dramatic actor but has never been able to completely shake off the stigma of his comedic routes (like Tom Hanks was able to).

I think he could pull off Hughes.

 

[redfirebird2008]

Yeah, Carrey was Nolan's choice to play Howard Hughes back then.

Personally, I'd love to see it. Always thought Carrey had the makings of a good dramatic actor but has never been able to completely shake off the stigma of his comedic routes (like Tom Hanks was able to).

I think he could pull off Hughes.

For awhile I've been thinking he might be too old to play the part after the project was shelved, but the report in the OP seems to indicate that Nolan's story focuses primarily on the middle age and later years of Hughes' life. Carrey is the perfect age right now for that part of Hughes' life.

 

[DarKJediKnight]

Well, since he's already worked with Leo,it's also possible that Leo could reprise the role.

 

[Asteroid-Man]

I HIGHLY doubt he would get Leo to play Hughes considering he waiting this long so that it wouldn't be compared to "The Aviator" - casting Leo would just undo the ten-year wait.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Well, sounds kind of interesting, but seems a little too soon after The Aviator. There's no official time to do biopics and all that or anything, but seems like that's too fresh to try and do another so soon. I'll probably keep an eye on it but can't shake the feeling Nolan's time could be spent better with something else for now, but who knows, he could prove my feeling wrong.

 

[redfirebird2008]

...but can't shake the feeling Nolan's time could be spent better with something for now, but who knows, he could prove my feeling wrong.

That's how I feel about his Batman movies. Waste of creativity.

 

[Fenrir]

That's how I feel about his Batman movies. Waste of creativity.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

Considering TDK is his best film. I call bs on that.