Christopher Nolan is an English film director, producer and screenwriter known for films featuring innovative narrative structures that challenge conventions. Some of his notable films include Memento (2000), which tells a story backwards, and Inception (2010), featuring dream-sharing technology. Nolan studied English literature in university and began making short films as a child. He is particularly interested in exploring concepts of time and memory in film. Some of his most commercially successful films are Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), and Inception (2010).

1. Director Research: Christopher Nolan
NET WORTH: $150 Million
Date of Birth 30 July 1970
Place of Birth London, England, UK
Birth Name Christopher Jonathan James Nolan
Nickname Chris
Height 5' 11" (1.8 m)
Profession Screenwriter, Film Producer, Film Director, Cinematographer
Nationality United States of America
Ethnicity English people
Noted for the innovative structure of both his nourish, cerebral debut film Following
(1998) and its follow-up, the equally unconventional and heady Memento (2000),
London-born filmmaker Christopher Nolan has shown a unique talent for creating
involving films containing concepts based on abstract breaks with conventional
behaviour and idealism. Dubbed meta-noir by critics at a loss for words to describe
its psychologically demanding, high-concept yet low-key journey into the mind of a
man seeking revenge but lacking the ability to create new memories, Memento
became the basis of lively discussion and debate among critics and audiences
hungering for something thoughtful among a flurry of countless computer-
generated pseudo-thrills and all-too-familiar gross-out comedies.

2. Born in 1970 and making 8 mm films from the age of seven, Nolan studied English
Literature at University College London, graduating to 16 mm through borrowing
equipment from the college's film department to make short films in his spare time.
Influenced early on by such books as Graham Swift's Water land, Nolan became
intrigued with the concept of juggling parallel timelines. Noting that this concept
was much more prevalent and common in print than on film, he began to expand
on the idea, eventually combining it with his fascination with the concept of
breaking down personal barriers after his London flat was burglarized and he
curiously speculated on the burglar's impression of himself and his life. Taking the
concept of an unemployed writer who becomes obsessed with learning about
strangers by following them and breaking into their apartments to study their lives,
Nolan crafted Following. Nominated for numerous film festival awards and winning
(among others) the Black and White Award at the Slam dance film festival, he
began to look forward to his next production; even going so far as to ask the
audience to donate money towards the production of Memento at the 1999 Hong
Kong Film Festival.
Inspired by a story his brother had written and told him about during a cross-
country trip, Nolan began the laborious project of drafting a screenplay and
gathering the resources for the film's production. Wanting to give the viewer an
experience that was more than they could absorb in a single viewing, he spent the
next few years refining the complexities of the screenplay to create what he felt
would be an involving and demanding experience that audiences would want to
revisit after their initial viewing.
Nolan's next project became a remake of the tense Norwegian thriller Insomnia
(1997). As with Memento, Insomnia achieved an authentic noir feel while
simultaneously offering a handful of excellent performances, this time from first-rate
actors like Al Pacino, Martin Donovan, and Maura Tierney.

3. His 2005 Batman Begins was one of the few comic-book adaptations of the era to
please both a large audience, hardcore fans of the comic, and film critics. Starring
Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Liam Neeson, the movie was
a worldwide smash at the box office, making Nolan one of the few young
filmmakers to have popular and critical success in equal measure.
Before going to work on the inevitable sequel, The Dark Knight (co-scripted with his
brother, Jonathan), Nolan directed The Prestige, a story about magicians also
written by Jonathan Nolan, whose short story had inspired the script for Chris's
breakout film Memento. For The Prestige, Nolan cast many of the same people he
worked with in Batman Begins. Though The Prestige did serviceable business at the
box office and drew a fair share of critical reviews, it was the Dark Knight that truly
established Nolan as one of his generation's most formidable filmmaking talents.
Uncompromisingly brooding, unapologetically epic, and featuring a positively
stunning performance by Heath Ledger as The Joker, the juggernaut sequel sent
comic book fans around the world into an absolute frenzy.