![]() It originated around eight years ago at Paramount Pictures under the guidance of veteran producer Lynda Obst, after theoretical physicist Kip Thorne (with whom she’d collaborated on Robert Zemeckis’ 1997 film Contact) had suggested sculpting a motion-picture concept around his own theories concerning “warped space-time”. It didn’t begin as a Christopher Nolan project, though. Christopher Nolan, old-school-harking master of in-camera techniques and practical effects doing spaceships and robots? Yeah, right… Even if we all really knew in our hearts it would never happen. So everyone’s next favourite Nolan rumour, which peaked around two years ago, was that he could be in line to direct the new Star Wars. There was a time when everybody’s favourite Christopher Nolan rumour would be that he’d direct the next Bond. ![]() “That,” says Nolan with a smile, “is because nothing like this has ever been done before!” More used to VFX-heavy ‘create it in post’ productions with their echoing stages swathed in greenscreen, Empire comments that we’ve honestly never seen anything like this before on a film set. “This will be one of a series of foreground shots.” This is a very big toy with which to be achieving some ‘little’ shots… “It does give you a sense of power,” Nolan admits, nodding over to the Ranger, which if not life-size, is pretty damn close at 80 per cent scale. “We’re just shooting lots of little pieces that will fit into various spots,” he explains of his day’s work. Nolan spots Empire and strides over, light-footed, to greet us. “He is enjoying things far too much.”Įventually, the waldo is released and the gimbal powers down. “Chris is like a boy with toys,” faux-sighs Thomas, shaking her head. A few chunks of its rear undercarriage, actually polystyrene, break away and tumble to the floor. ![]() Nolan gives the waldo a good, hard jiggle, and the Ranger shudders and jerks with worrying intensity. “It’s the biggest electric train set in Hollywood!” “Something to put under the Christmas tree!” Otero grins at us, pick wedged between his teeth. As Nolan, a huge smile illuminating his usually brow-darkened face, pulls back on the waldo and causes his craft to tilt as vertically as this rig will allow, we fight the nervous urge to step back. “Pretty amazing, isn’t it?” yells Emma Thomas - producer, Nolan’s other half, and Empire’s tour guide for its one-day Interstellar voyage this mid-November day in Los Angeles. Smoke gusts across the ship’s multi-windowed prow, representing atmosphere that will buffet the craft on screen. As he twists it and turns it, the huge craft follows its movements, amplified and accompanied by the hissing and puffing of hydraulics. The motion base beneath the Ranger rumbles into life and Nolan grasps the copper triangle, or “the waldo”. LET’S STAY CLEAR!” barks Otero, strutting the danger-zone perimeter. Flanked by his new director of photography, the Dutch-Swedish Hoyte Van Hoytema (long-haired, bearded, clad in goth-black), and his long-serving first assistant director Nilo Otero (who, with his neat sweep of silver hair, sharp suit and ever-present toothpick, could be a Mob-movie consigliere), Nolan positions himself behind a steampunkish control panel: three strips of copper bolted together in a triangle and rod-mounted on a stand. The fair-haired captain of this good ship, which he’s named the Ranger, stands a few metres to its right in jacket, waistcoat and sky-blue shirt. And hard-mounted on the spaceship’s top port side, like a noisy, boxy carbuncle, is an IMAX camera. Its angular nose is directed away from us, towards a smoke machine, an industrial fan and a huge, white curtain which hangs from the rafters of this Sony Pictures Studios sound stage (the same one that housed the Batcave). Empire stands a safe distance from the craft’s stern, which has at its centre a circular hatch (for docking, we’re told). Weighing 12 tons and mounted ten feet off the ground on a complex arrangement of pistons, this truck-sized, bevelled rectangle resembles the design sweet spot between The Dark Knight’s Tumbler, an Empire Strikes Back snowspeeder, a space shuttle and the submersible Lotus Esprit from The Spy Who Loved Me.
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