Influential Figures- Christopher Nolan 

Christopher Nolan, is a successful Director who gained fame for the Batman Trilogy which he wrote, produced and directed. Nolan is known for entrusting foreign actors to play American roles. For example, in The Dark Knight he recruited Heath Ledger to play The Joker. He studied English Literature at University College in London. Nolan was a member of the U.C.L.'s film society where he learned guerrilla techniques that he used in his first feature, Following (1998), with a budget of around $6000. The noir thriller received good reviews at a number of International Film Festivals. 

The success of this lead him to get enough funding to make his second motion picture Memento (2000). Which was a neo-noir Psychological Thriller, starring Guy Pearce.
The film was a success and won several honours, including Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations. 

His next film was crime Psychological Thriller Insomnia (2002), which starred Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank. This achieved a 78 out of 100 on Metacritic.
Nolan was then offered the opportunity to revive the Batman series, with an origins story in Batman Begins (2005) staring Christian Bale as Batman. The story was more dark and serious in comparison to Tim Burton's Batman (1989) interpretation. This change was welcomed by fans and critics alike.

Before working on a sequel to Batman Begins, Nolan directed, co-wrote and produced The Prestige (2006), which was a mystery thriller starring Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, who had just finished the filming for Batman Begins. The plot is of two magicians whose tense rivalry leads to tragedy and murder.

After The Prestige, Nolan began working a sequel to Batman Begins. This was to be called The Dark Knight. He directed, wrote and produced it and it was an international success. It grossed over £1 Billion Dollars at the box office and is considered by many as the best Batman movie because of the performance of Heath Ledger and The Joker. Nolan was nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award, Writers Guild of America Award and Producers Guild Award as well as the film receiving eight Academy Award Nominations.  According to the Internet Movie Database (IMBD for short) The Dark Knight is the fourth top rated movie ever behind; The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II.

In 2010, Nolan directed and produced Sci-Fi thriller Inception in which its origin came from a screenplay Nolan had written years earlier. The thought provoking drama, which starred Leonardo Di Caprio, was a global success and grossed $800 million dollars and became one of the most discussed films of the year because of how unique it was. Inception received four Academy Awards and eight nominations.


What followed Inception was The Dark Knight Rises (2012), the sequel to The Dark Knight and the final part of Nolan's Batman Trilogy. It again starred Christian Bale as Batman with Tom Hardy as Bane, a former member of The League of Shadows and Anne Hathaway as Catwoman.