Why did Christopher Nolan choose to part ways with Warner Bros for his new film?

Christopher Nolan will be working with Universal Pictures for his next film, effectively ending a 19-year relationship with Warner Bros.

The $100 million film will be a biographical drama about US physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, nicknamed the father of the atom bomb for his role in the 1942 Manhattan Project. The film will mark the second time Nolan finds source material in the gruelling history of the Second World War, after his 2017 Oscar-winning epic Dunkirk, which made more than $520m at the box office internationally.

Christopher Nolan's 2017 Oscar-winning epic 'Dunkirk' made more than $520 million at the box office. AP

Nolan was reportedly in talks with a number of production companies including Sony, MGM and Paramount before deciding on Universal Pictures to finance and distribute the film. According to Deadline, frequent Nolan collaborator Cillian Murphy will be involved in the still-untitled project.

So why did the Dark Knight and Interstellar filmmaker leave Warner Bros, a company he has almost exclusively worked with since his 2002 thriller Insomnia?

Nolan’s decision to sever ties with Warner Bros did not come completely out of the blue. In late 2020, the director publicly criticised the studio for its decision to adopt a hybrid release model, debuting films in theatres the same day they become available on the HBO Max streaming service.

“Some of our industry’s biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service,” Nolan told Hollywood Reporter in December.

“Warner Bros had an incredible machine for getting a filmmaker’s work out everywhere, both in theatres and in the home, and they are dismantling it as we speak. They don’t even understand what they’re losing. Their decision makes no economic sense, and even the most casual Wall Street investor can see the difference between disruption and dysfunction.”

After the comment, many assumed it was only a matter of time until the British-American filmmaker broke it off with Warner Bros.

His latest release, the 2020 time-bending thriller Tenet marked the ninth film that involved Warner Bros. The film was met with generally positive reviews and made more than $350m at the global box office. However, Nolan’s most financially successful films with Warner Bros was the Dark Knight trilogy, which collectively netted about $2.5 billion in global box office sales.

Dr Amal Khalid Alias revealed a recent case of a woman with daughters, who specifically wanted a boy.

A semen analysis of the father showed abnormal sperm so the couple required IVF.

Out of 21 eggs collected, six were unused leaving 15 suitable for IVF.

A specific procedure was used, called intracytoplasmic sperm injection where a single sperm cell is inserted into the egg.

On day three of the process, 14 embryos were biopsied for gender selection.

The next day, a pre-implantation genetic report revealed four normal male embryos, three female and seven abnormal samples.

Day five of the treatment saw two male embryos transferred to the patient.

The woman recorded a positive pregnancy test two weeks later.

MORE FROM ED HUSAIN: The UAE-Israel accord is a win for every Muslim

On Women's Day

Dr Nawal Al-Hosany: Why more women should be on the frontlines of climate action

Shelina Janmohamed: Why shouldn't a spouse be compensated fairly for housework?

Samar Elmnhrawy: How companies in the Middle East can catch up on gender equality

Justin Thomas: Challenge the notion that 'men are from Mars, women are from Venus'

In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013

The five pillars of Islam

1. Fasting

2. Prayer

3. Hajj

4. Shahada

5. Zakat

Closing the loophole on sugary drinks

As The National reported last year, non-fizzy sugared drinks were not covered when the original tax was introduced in 2017. Sports drinks sold in supermarkets were found to contain, on average, 20 grams of sugar per 500ml bottle.

The non-fizzy drink AriZona Iced Tea contains 65 grams of sugar – about 16 teaspoons – per 680ml can. The average can costs about Dh6, which would rise to Dh9.

Drinks such as Starbucks Bottled Mocha Frappuccino contain 31g of sugar in 270ml, while Nescafe Mocha in a can contains 15.6g of sugar in a 240ml can.

Flavoured water, long-life fruit juice concentrates, pre-packaged sweetened coffee drinks fall under the ‘sweetened drink’ category

Not taxed:

Freshly squeezed fruit juices, ground coffee beans, tea leaves and pre-prepared flavoured milkshakes do not come under the ‘sweetened drink’ band.