Christopher Nolan is Interstellar’s director and writer, Inception’s (2010), The Dark Knight’s (2008), so on and so forth. But whatever happened with Jonathan, the big star’s brother, who, in fact, was the (co)writer behind many of the films directed by the above mentioned? Memento (2000) was based on a short story written by Jonah and initially entitled Memento Mori, plus, Jonathan also wrote the screenplay of The Prestige (2006), The Dark Knight (2008) and even the box office movie of the weekend, Interstellar. The truth is that both brothers helped write the movies in question, as they are almost always labeled as co-writers. Yet another truth is the fact that whereas Christopher is mostly acclaimed and appreciated, Jonathan Nolan is less recognized by the large public. Directing projects such as Person of Interest (2013) or Westworld, an on-filming TV Movie, is likely to change the status of the writer. Especially since HBO and Nolan are set on making Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy.
If Person of Interest did not appeal to you in terms of TV Series, Jonathan’s future project might just dazzle you (but in a good way). Isaac Asimov’s The Foundation trilogy is to be brought by HBO and Jonathan Nolan is meant to act once more as writer, The Wrap informs. The same source quotes as argument one of Jonah’s answers during an interview taken before the release of Interstellar: ‘’Well, I […] love the Foundation novels by Isaac Asimov – they’re certainly not unknown, but that’s a set of books I think everyone would benefit from reading. That’s a set of books where the influence they have is just […] massive; they have many imitators and many have been inspired by them, but go back and read those, and there are some ideas in those that’ll set your […] hair on fire.’’ The matter is up for debate, as neither HBO, nor any of Jonathan’s representatives commented on the issue.
Asimov’s Foundation is not at its first attempt to hit television. Back in 2009, Roland Emmerich was designated as director and producer, but that project never came to fruition. The Wrap tags the name of Dante Harper as yet another failed trial. HBO’s acquisition of property and Nolan’s designation as writer and producer could be exactly what Foundation lacked in order to resist.
Isaac Asimov’s Foundation is a trilogy consisting of the titles Foundation (1951), Foundation and Empire (1952) and Second Foundation (1953). The trilogy is also linked to two prequel titles: Prelude to Foundation (1988) – the action takes place before the Foundation story – and Forward the Foundation (1993) and another extended series, consisting of Foundation’s Edge (1982) and Foundation on Earth (1986). The trilogy has as main character Hari Seldon, a mathematician who dedicated his life to the development of a mathematics branch, called psychohistory and used the law of mass action to foresee future events. The forecast of the fall of the Galactic Empire forces him to help create a foundation of artists and engineers meant to establish a new empire.