Christopher Nolan’s OPPENHEIMER went from 85 shooting days to 57 days, so they had more money to play with

When director Christopher Nolan decided to do Oppenheimer, the plan was to shoot the film in 85 days. But as they were developing the project and preparing it for production, the budget started to balloon and there were locations they had to shoot that they couldn’t afford. One of the larger locations they needed was Los Alamos, which had to be built from scratch.

During a recent appearance on the Team Deakins podcast, Oppenheimer production designer Ruth De Jong talked about how Nolan opened up the budget so Los Alamos could be built for the film and they could shoot in as many locations as Nolan wanted to shoot. DeJong said:

“It felt like a $100 million independent film. This is not principle [which was shot in 96 days]. Chris wanted to shoot all over the US…just plane tickets and crew scattered all over the place [is expensive]. Not to mention that I have to build Los Alamos, it doesn’t exist. That’s where I really felt it was impossible.

“Chris said, ‘Forget the money. We just design what we want.’ That’s what we did, and when my city’s first construction budget was $20 million. Chris told me, ‘Yes, no. Stop.’ We had this huge white model and I started pulling buildings out of it, not to mention we want to shoot in New York and New Jersey and Berkeley and Los Angeles and New Mexico.

There was then a point where the executive producer Tom Hayslip he told De Jong they couldn’t even shoot in Berkley and the production designer said, “But we have to go to Berkley. That’s Oppenheimer!” The producers were trying to figure out a way to cut the budget design-wise, but then Nolan stepped in and said, “I’m shooting this in 55 days” and that gave them the budget they needed to get the film done. of Los Alamos. built. DeJong said:

“The producers were asking me what I could do to make myself smaller [the budget]. Tom then walks into my office and says, “Chris is shooting this movie in 55 days.” That’s a lot of money that is returned to us. At that point you feel like I have to give it my all because he’s gone and given up his days. He, more than anyone, knows what he wants to achieve every single day and how he wants to achieve it and he goes from 85 to 55 days.

the movie star, Cilian Murphyearlier we talked about the speed of what Oppenheimer was filmed saying that “the pace was insane”.

“We made the film incredibly fast. We made it in 57 days. The pace was crazy. The sets are huge, but it feels like an indie film. It’s just Chris and the cameraman – always a camera, unless there’s a huge, huge scene – and the operational boom and that’s it. There is no video village, no monitors, nothing. He is a very analog director ”.

So, the reason they shot the movie so fast was to open up the budget and give the production team more money to play with. It’s truly amazing that they actually managed to pull it off!