I originally posted the below tweet in the MOVIE TRAILERS & RELEASE DATES thread yesterday, laughing at how random the second rumor/option was, while also noting that it's such an insanely specific rumor that it might actually be true...

2 rumours are circulating about Christopher Nolan's next film:

- The first comes from @GraceRandolph, who claims that the film may be a horror film.

- The second comes from a Reddit user, who claims that Christopher Nolan and his team are currently working with the NYPD… pic.twitter.com/mIslSa8ZQ1

— Christopher Nolan Art & Updates (@NolanAnalyst) October 15, 2024

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The second comes from a Reddit user, who claims that Christopher Nolan and his team are currently working with the NYPD Aviation Unit. The word is that the film will be a New York based futuristic action film about a Helicopter pilot Cop who heads up the Aviation Unit in the US and the creation of a super advanced yet dangerous Helicopter itself being pursued by terrorists. Instead of circulating a screenplay to key personnel, Christopher Nolan has apparently made sure they each recieved high quality versions of the 1983 movie Blue Thunder that starred Roy Scheider and was directed by John Badham as well as various items of written work related to that film. The film wont be a remake of Blue Thunder but it will be based on a character at the Helicopter Aviation Unit and a powerful Helicopter in the vein of Blue Thunder. Christopher Nolan is a fan of the film and it was his starting point when putting the project together.

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Then, earlier tonight, reporter Jeff Sneider posted this in his newsletter…

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Is Christopher Nolan trying to get to the choppah? A user on Reddit whose "sister's father-in-law works at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn" is claiming that there has been chatter among the NYPD's Aviation Unit that Christopher Nolan and key people from his production team will be arriving in November to spend roughly a month with the unit ahead of production of his next movie, which is rumored to be a futuristic action movie about a New York cop who pilots a helicopter and patrols the skies, where a group of terrorists plan to use a high-tech chopper to wreak havoc on people below. The project is said to be inspired by John Badham's 1983 movie Blue Thunder starring Roy Scheider, which also concerned a dangerously advanced helicopter and a member of the Helicopter Aviation Unit. Does this rumor pass my smell test? I have to say that… it does. The rumor is so specific, and not only is the idea of sky heists so very Nolan, but I can totally see Matt Damon as a helicopter cop. No confirmation yet from Nolan's camp, which did not respond to a request for comment, but I expect the trades to look into this on their end…

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Now, at this point... the randomness/specificity of the rumor + Jeff's take + reading the reddit thread for myself = me starting to believe.

That, and the more I think about it, there are additional elements at play that feel right…

- The Bat (aka The Batwing) from The Dark Knight Rises now seems as if it could have been partly inspired by Nolan's apparent love of Blue Thunder, seeing as The Bat was basically an advanced helicopter of sorts navigating skyscrapers, firing missiles, etc. Almost as if it was a taste or tease that Nolan didn't quite get to fully explore.

- IMO, the helicopter chase sequence in the final act of Mission: Impossible - Fallout is one of the greatest action sequences of the 21st century. So if someone like Nolan were to take that basic vibe, expand it to an entire movie, set it in a futuristic New York, yeah, Universal would basically print $$$.

- Speaking of futuristic New York, while Nolan has technically already tackled the future via Interstellar, he hasn't yet done his Minority Report or RoboCop, where he really gets to go all out envisioning ten, fifteen, twenty-five years down the line, and what daily life in a futuristic city setting might be like.

I've actually never seen Blue Thunder, and on one hand "futuristic helicopter" sounds so incredibly cheesy/'80s to me - instead, why wouldn't a modern take focus on some kind of new, gravity-defying propulsion - but if anyone can pull it off and make it badass, thrilling, and emotional, on a giant IMAX screen, it's obviously Nolan.

Anyway, we'll see how this one pans out, and no matter what it ends up being, my butt will no doubt be in the theater come July 17, 2026.

Oh, and for context, just FYI, this is on the heels of last week's announcement, which was nothing more than a release date and the news that Damon is tapped to star...

Christopher Nolan Sets Next Movie At Universal In Imax For Summer 2026, With Matt Damon Eyed To Star https://t.co/sjDxccYCpt

— Deadline (@DEADLINE) October 8, 2024

As a kid I loved this and Airwolf (and Top Gun and everything else aviationy). But I was in it because of the aircraft pron. Not because of the story or any of that. Aa an adult, none of it holds up well.

I have no idea how a movie like this could ever be in Nolan's wheelhouse. How can he possibly make this good?

I imagine looking at naked women through night vision will be a LOT better this time around.

Rex Racer said:

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VP at Pierce and Pierce said:

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Not going to lie, this sounds silly and more like a James Cameron movie than anything Christopher Nolan would do.

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The story will be in reverse!

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Yeah, and you won't be able to hear any of the muffled dialogue! You'll have no idea what's going on but you'll think it's great because it's Nolan!

VP at Pierce and Pierce said:

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Not going to lie, this sounds silly and more like a James Cameron movie than anything Christopher Nolan would do.

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What if it's more Neill Blomkamp than Cameron? Think Elysium.

Claude! said:

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I honestly find the thought adorable in the best way. The idea that we have possibly one of the best directors of his generation, who's grossed over $6 billion with his films, wanting to do a remake of an okay-ish at best early 80s TV show is hilarious to me, and humanizes him quite a bit. It'd be like Scorsese taking a break to turn the 1970s show Emergency! into a film.

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It's Blue Thunder, not Airwolf. Airwolf was the TV show.

Rex Racer said:

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Claude! said:

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I honestly find the thought adorable in the best way. The idea that we have possibly one of the best directors of his generation, who's grossed over $6 billion with his films, wanting to do a remake of an okay-ish at best early 80s TV show is hilarious to me, and humanizes him quite a bit. It'd be like Scorsese taking a break to turn the 1970s show Emergency! into a film.

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It's Blue Thunder, not Airwolf. Airwolf was the TV show.

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There was a Blue Thunder tv show too. It sucked and didn't last long. I remember it b/c Hightower from Police Academy was in it along with Dick Butkus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Thunder_(TV_series)

superunknown said:

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Apache said:

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This is like making a movie about a badass prop plane in the 1950's when dudes are breaking the sound barrier in jets.

This is the age of AI, drone warfare & remotely landing rockets. Not Blue Thunder. Hell, Airwolf was much cooler than Blue Thunder. Everyone knows that, c'mon Nolan.

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Even reading the thread title I was like "but what about airwolf? Much cooler."

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There is a youtube channel where a former pilot (either F-16, F-18 or both) talks about flying in movies. He usually rakes them over the coals. But one show he refuses to bash is Airwolf. He will go through an entire episode saying nothing about the dialog and then man-crush on the airmanship of whoever that pilot was.

Marauder Blue 6 said:

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Rex Racer said:

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Claude! said:

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I honestly find the thought adorable in the best way. The idea that we have possibly one of the best directors of his generation, who's grossed over $6 billion with his films, wanting to do a remake of an okay-ish at best early 80s TV show is hilarious to me, and humanizes him quite a bit. It'd be like Scorsese taking a break to turn the 1970s show Emergency! into a film.

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It's Blue Thunder, not Airwolf. Airwolf was the TV show.

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There was a Blue Thunder tv show too. It sucked and didn't last long. I remember it b/c Hightower from Police Academy was in it along with Dick Butkus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Thunder_(TV_series)

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I stand corrected! I remember Airwolf. I do not recall the Blue Thunder TV show.

I am still not believing this, but certainly could be proven wrong. Just seems like a really bizarre choice for him.

Apache said:

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This is like making a movie about a badass prop plane in the 1950's when dudes are breaking the sound barrier in jets.

This is the age of AI, drone warfare & remotely landing rockets. Not Blue Thunder. Hell, Airwolf was much cooler than Blue Thunder. Everyone knows that, c'mon Nolan.

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Re-watching Air Wolf in my shop as a work on a project. Fun show for what it is, still stop everytime that music comes on.

oragator said:

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I am still not believing this, but certainly could be proven wrong. Just seems like a really bizarre choice for him.

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If true, my guess is, after having a career moment, winning Best Picture and Best Director Oscars, for making a period drama about physics that somehow grossed over a billion dollars, and basically reaching the absolute pinnacle of filmmaking, Nolan wants to go in a completely different direction for his follow-up. In other words, trying to immediately one-up Oppenheimer would be a fool's errand, and he already did his third, heady/twisty blockbuster (Tenet, following Interstellar and Inception) just prior to that.

Nolan is also on the record as unabashedly loving Michael Bay movies, along with the Fast & Furious franchise, so maybe he just wants to have some fun this go around in that regard, while also of course also doing it the Nolan way. Which, again, would probably be more in the vein of Minority Report, RoboCop, or Elysium, the latter of which someone pointed out earlier.

Then again, this is all based on a reddit rumor that literally begins with "My sister's father in law..." so who knows how real this even is. It's just *so* specific that it feels like there might actually be a there there.

TCTTS said:

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oragator said:

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I am still not believing this, but certainly could be proven wrong. Just seems like a really bizarre choice for him.

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If true, my guess is, after having a career moment, winning Best Picture and Best Director Oscars, for making a period drama about physics that somehow grossed over a billion dollars, and basically reaching the absolute pinnacle of filmmaking, Nolan wants to go in a completely different direction for his follow-up. In other words, trying to immediately one-up Oppenheimer would be a fool's errand, and he already did his third, heady/twisty blockbuster (Tenet, following Interstellar and Inception) just prior to that.

Nolan is also on the record as unabashedly loving Michael Bay movies, along with the Fast & Furious franchise, so maybe he just wants to have some fun this go around in that regard, while also of course also doing it the Nolan way. Which, again, would probably be more in the vein of Minority Report, RoboCop, or Elysium, the latter of which someone pointed out earlier.

Then again, this is all based on a reddit rumor that literally begins with "My sister's father in law..." so who knows how real this even is. It's just *so* specific that it feels like there might actually be a there there.

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I could see that. Just let loose and have some fun. Not everything needs to be Oscar-worthy.

Yeah i thought the same thing, I guess what I was saying was that there were a hundred directions to go in to get away from Oppenheimer without resorting to 80's cheese as a starting point. Mystery, a fun action film, even a Nolanly unique romcom.
But he definitely deserves the benefit of the doubt if he goes that way. He's the best out there right now.

Blue Thunder was an awesome movie in 1983. I rewatched it not too long ago. Not as good as I remembered it, but not bad.

The chopper was "futuristic" in the sense that it was essentially a stealth helicopter. Not invisible per se, but had "quiet" mode and was painted dark blue. But at the end of the day, it was basically a helicopter with a big gun that could somehow do a loopty-loop.

Yeah, my one big red flag is, 40 years later and I don't really understand how a helicopter can be anymore stealth or "futuristic" in a modern adaptation. Especially after real life has essentially long since caught up with the stealth aspect, and has already been depicted the something like the final act of Zero Dark Thirty.

So either A) Nolan just REALLY wants to make a helicopter movie, and the tech is more of an afterthought, B) it's some new kind of tech/vehicle altogether, or C) this rumor is complete bunk.

If accurate, this doesn't necessarily negate a Blue Thunder reimagining, but it also obviously doesn't support it either…

Christopher Nolan’s next movie will not be sci-fi but some speculate that it may be in the espionage genre.

(Source: https://t.co/oGRndY1GHr) pic.twitter.com/EWkTgngYc1

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) October 16, 2024

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What Nolan's film will be remains a mystery. It won't be "The Prisoner," a project that has a long history at Universal and once was developed as a vehicle for the director. Sources say Nolan's latest isn't another sci-fi epic; some speculate that it may be in the espionage genre. That's not a surprise given that Nolan flirted with making a Bond film at one point. However, that franchise has been in limbo since Daniel Craig retired as 007 with 2021's "No Time to Die." Plus, Nolan is a final-cut director, and Bond gatekeeper Barbara Broccoli is loath to grant any filmmaker that control.

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There used to be a lot of helicopter chase movies. Like Birds of Prey in the 70s, Blue Thunder in the 80s, Firebirds in the 90s.. There have been a couple scenes in recent movies, like Mission Impossible, but not a movie dedicated to it. That Birds of Prey one is basically a helicopter chase for the entire movie. They do ridiculous stunts like play hover helicopter hide and go seek inside of hangers. Maybe that is considered too dangerous nowadays?

But perhaps Nolan is going to try to bring that back? Use remote control for safety?

I can't imagine they do anything cooler than what Dune did with the Ornithopter.

Apache said:

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This is like making a movie about a badass prop plane in the 1950's when dudes are breaking the sound barrier in jets.

This is the age of AI, drone warfare & remotely landing rockets. Not Blue Thunder. Hell, Airwolf was much cooler than Blue Thunder. Everyone knows that, c'mon Nolan.

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I got to see breastesses as a young one. That's all I remember.

Definitely Not A Cop said:

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I can't imagine they do anything cooler than what Dune did with the Ornithopter.

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Agreed

Jan Michael Vincent was a god.