UPDATE 9/10: The full picture: David Ellison is putting together an epic DC dream team — and James Gunn just blew it.
“Mike [De Luca] & Pam [Abdy] are furiously working to clean up the mess and mend fences with MANY directors & creatives who were mistreated and pushed out.”
That’s what a Paramount insider told us in yesterday’s report.
Now think about the most famous director Warner Bros. ever mistreated and pushed out.
Christopher Nolan.
Nolan made nine of his thirteen movies at Warner Bros. Then came the HBO Max day-and-date blowup, the Tenet fees he waived to get the movie into reopening theaters, and the walk to Universal.
Our First Report Put Nolan In The Plan
Back in November, the exclusive that started all of this said the SnyderVerse return plan includes Nolan.
“That makes it a possibility that Zack finishes his DCEU saga, with Christopher Nolan involved as exec producer,” our source said at the time.
The history backs it.
Nolan produced Man of Steel, executive produced Batman v Superman, and his name is on Zack Snyder’s Justice League — the four-hour cut — as executive producer.
As that report noted, we were also told it was Nolan’s decision to hand DC to Snyder in the first place.
And per our insiders, the IMAX version of Snyder’s Justice League exists because Nolan encouraged Snyder to shoot in the format back when people laughed at the idea.
The DGA President Got Involved
Nolan was elected president of the Directors Guild of America last September, by acclamation.
As we covered, the DGA and IATSE sent a letter urging both sides to settle the Paramount merger fight, with conditions built around theatrical windows and guaranteed theatrical output, Nolan’s signature issues.
Per our insiders at the time, Nolan pushing for it was “not a coincidence.”
We’ve since been told he stepped in and got involved.
The deal has now cleared 69 regulatory jurisdictions, and Paramount says it’s ready to close. The last thing standing is the state lawsuit, and the courtroom date is September 24.
No Contract Ties Him Anywhere
Here’s the part that makes all of this possible.
Per Variety, Nolan has never signed an overall or exclusive deal with any studio, not at Universal now, and not even during his Warner Bros. years.
Every movie is a one-picture negotiation.
The Oppenheimer deal was a single film. The Odyssey went straight to Universal, again as one picture and became the biggest movie of his career.
His next film? Nolan says it’s “at least” three years away. No studio is attached.
Every time Christopher Nolan makes a movie, he’s a free agent.
And an executive producer credit isn’t even a directing job. Nolan putting his name on Snyder’s Justice League films, the way he did before, wouldn’t touch his Universal schedule at all.
De Luca And Abdy Have Been Trying Since 2022
Nolan left for Universal nine months before De Luca and Abdy arrived at Warner Bros. The broken relationship is one they inherited, and they’ve been trying to fix it from day one.
Per Variety, the two said openly in 2022 that they wanted Nolan back, and cut him a seven-figure check repaying the Tenet fees he’d waived for the old regime.
One source called it a “little kiss.” It didn’t work — Warner Bros. putting Barbie on Oppenheimer‘s release date didn’t help.
That was under David Zaslav’s Warner Bros.
The fence-mending our insider describes is happening under the incoming one, with the same two executives, this time backed by an owner pushing IMAX event movies.
Line it all up.
Our first report has Nolan returning as executive producer on a Snyder DCEU finish.
The guild he now runs backs the deal.
No contract stands in his way. And the two executives who’ve spent four years trying to win him back are, per our insider, “furiously working” at exactly that.
Zack Snyder’s DC return just got a lot bigger. Nolan’s name has been in it since the first story.
