Christopher Nolan’s next World War II film has been widely reported to be about American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and the atomic bomb, and will now be made by Universal Studios. The five-time Academy Award-nominated filmmaker’s collaboration with Universal will be the first time in over a decade that he will be shifting base from doing a film for Warner Bros. The blockbuster director, who has been a powerhouse money-spinner for Warner Bros., had been holding discussions with several studios over recent weeks about his next, which reportedly has an estimated budget of $100 million. Outside of Universal Pictures, Sony and MGM Studios too were in the fray, including Warner Bros. with whom Nolan as well had talks. However, the once successful partnership with his former studio got strained after Warner decided to release its entire 2021 slate of films simultaneously on the streaming service HBO Max, which the celebrated filmmaker labeled last year as “the worst streaming service”, with the studio being unhappy over his comments. 

Nolan’s last film Tenet was released in the middle of the pandemic and didn’t set the cash registers ringing at the box office as Warner Bros. had hoped. However, the success of his past films was a strong enough reason for other studios to willingly join hands for a new partnership among which also included streaming services. Reports state the Oppenheimer film is expected to start in the first half of 2022, with Nolan regular Cillian Murphy’s name already mentioned as a member of an ensemble cast. Top executives at the studios had read the script at Nolan’s production company Syncopy Inc. offices, with his agent Dan Aloni setting the dialogue for the discussion and Donna Langley engaging in bringing the venture to Universal. 

According to reports, the film will be centered around the Manhattan Project and Oppenheimer’s role in the making of the A-bomb, including his work in the Trinity test in New Mexico, where the first atomic bomb was detonated. Oppenheimer, who is called the "father of the atomic bomb", had at that moment recollected words from the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." He later went on to persuade and recommend for an international control of nuclear weapons and also strongly expressed his opposition over the development of the hydrogen bomb.