Christopher Nolan lauds new A24 series: ‘Unlike anything I’ve seen on television’

Christopher Nolan has heaped praise on Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie’s new A24 show The Curse, describing the darkly comedic 10-part series as “unlike anything I’ve ever seen on television before”.

Fielder and Safdie created The Curse, which also stars Oscar-winner Emma Stone, in part as a satire of reality home renovation shows.

Per the logline, the series explores “how an alleged curse disturbs the relationship of a newly married couple as they try to conceive a child while co-starring on their problematic new HGTV show, Fliplanthropy”.

Speaking at a Q&A organised by network Showtime, Nolan said: “There are so few shows that come along that genuinely have no precedents. I mean, you’re going back to things like Twin Peaks or The Prisoner or Dennis Potter’s Singing Detective – things like that. So you’re in an amazing space, and I can’t wait for audiences to catch up with the climax.”

The show has been widely acclaimed, particularly for the genre-bending, expectation-defying finale that aired earlier this month.

Nolan and Safdie previously worked together on the director’s Oscar-nominated biopic Oppenheimer, with Safdie playing Hungarian-American theoretical physicist Edward Teller.

Oppenheimer is up for 13 Oscars at this year’s Academy Awards, which will be held in Los Angeles on 10 March.

That places the film just behind the record for most Oscar nominations, which is held jointly by All About Eve, Titanic and La La Land. Those films all received 14 nominations.

Nolan is in contention to win his first-ever Oscar for the epic detailing the invention of the atomic bomb, which was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director, as well as acting nods for Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt and Robert Downey Jr.

“I grew up loving Hollywood movies and believing studio filmmaking can take on anything,” said Nolan in response to the film’s nominations. “Seeing audiences respond to that this summer was incredibly thrilling and getting this kind of recognition from the academy, I don’t know what to say, really. It certainly confirms our faith in what studio filmmaking can be.”

Meanwhile, Oppenheimer star Florence Pugh recently recalled the “not ideal” moment when a technical difficulty arose while filming a sex scene with Cillian Murphy.

“Cillian and I are in this room together. It’s a closed set, so we’re both holding our bodies like this,” said Pugh, wrapping her arms around herself. A person then came into the room to attempt to fix the camera.

“I’m like, well, this is my moment to learn. ‘So tell me, what’s wrong with this camera?’” she recalled saying to the person who entered the room. “You just make your moments. I’m like, ‘What’s going on with the shutter here, buddy?’”

Pugh then said Nolan explained there was an issue with the way the light was coming in.

“It was just crazy that every person on this set was so knowledgeable and was so ready to make this kind of a movie that there was no dull moment,” said Pugh. “It was all amazing. It felt like we were lucky to be there every second of the day.”