Steven Soderbergh Talked a Studio Executive Into Meeting With Christopher Nolan So He Could Make INSOMNIA

Christopher Nolan is known for creating intricately-made, epic in scale movies for the big screen, with advanced plotlines and repeat actors lined up to work with him. Many of his films have gone down as masterpieces, including Memento, The Prestige, his Batman trilogy, Inception, Interstellar, and Tenet, as well as his recently released historical summer blockbuster, Oppenheimer. But one dramatic thriller early on in his career almost didn’t get made, as the filmmaker couldn’t yet get a meeting with the studio to hear him out.

After having directed just two films, Following and Memento, Nolan had his eye on the script for the film Insomnia, but Warner Bros. wouldn’t take a meeting with the upcoming filmmaker. So his agent got a bigger-named friend to step in.

Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh is best known for making films like Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Erin Brockovich, the Ocean’s 11 trilogy, The Informant!, and so much more, and he also happens to be a big fan of Nolan’s. While speaking with Rolling Stone, Soderbergh shared how Nolan’s agent first reached out to him to screen Memento:

“What happened was, I got a call from Chris’ agent, Dan Aloni, who I had known because he screened Memento for me after Memento couldn’t find a distributor after being on the festival circuit for a year. Dan calls me up out of the blue and says, ‘Could you watch this movie? I have this client of mine who has this movie, and we think it’s really good, but nobody will pick it up and we don’t understand why. Maybe we’re all crazy.’ I see the movie, and I think it’s a fucking instant classic.

“Cut to months later, Dan calls me and he goes, ‘Look, there’s this script over at Warner, Insomnia. Chris is really interested in it, but Warner won’t take the meeting.’ And I go, ‘What do you mean they won’t take the meeting?’ And he goes, ‘Well, the executive there didn’t like Memento.’ And I said, ‘Well, so what? Why won’t they take the meeting?’

“So, I called that executive and I said, ‘Take the meeting. You’ve got to take the meeting.’ And he goes, ‘But I didn’t like the movie.’ And I go, ‘Well, did you like the movie-making?’ And he goes, ‘Well, yeah, it’s brilliantly made.’ And I go, ‘Take the meeting.’ That is all I did. I knew Chris well enough to know that if he gets in the room, he’s going to get that job. The executive came back and said, ‘I really love Chris.’ And I go, ‘Well, yeah.’ And he asked if Section Eight would come on as producers, and I said, ‘Sure.’ That was it.”

Warner Bros. hired Nolan to direct 2002’s Insomnia, starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank, and that led to a longstanding relationship between Nolan and the studio. Despite his help, Soderbergh insisted that Nolan would have found a way to break into the industry because of his talent. He went on:

“If he didn’t make Insomnia, he’d have made something else and still had the career he has. That was just a fortunate set of circumstances where I could get on the phone and advocate for him.”

That’s a cool story. It’s awesome when a filmmaker can see some raw talent in another director, and help to point them in the right direction.