Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan considers Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby to be one of the great comedies.
It’s always interesting to learn the favourite movies of some of your favourite filmmakers; sometimes they’re exactly what you’d expect and other times… they’re not. While speaking on The Rich Eisen Show, Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan was asked to name some of his favourite “remote drops,” meaning a movie you just have to watch when you stumble across it on television, and he responded with Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby.
“I mean, god, anything by [Stanley] Kubrick, you know? It’s a remote drop,” Christopher Nolan said. “And some of the great comedies too, I mean ‘Talladega Nights,’ I’m never gonna be able to switch that up.” When asked to confirm if Talladega Nights really was a Christopher Nolan remote drop movie, Nolan simply responded with a quote from the movie: “If you ain’t first, you’re last.“
Will Ferrell stars in Talladega Nights as NASCAR driver Ricky Bobby, who holds his number one position thanks to a pact with his best friend and teammate, Cal Naughton, Jr. (John C. Reilly). But when a French Formula One driver (Sacha Baron Cohen) makes his way up the ladder, Ricky Bobby’s talent and devotion are put to the test.
Christopher Nolan’s love of Stanley Kubrick is well known and he even helped to restore a 70mm print of 2001: A Space Odyssey several years ago. I can’t say I would have pegged Christopher Nolan as a Talladega Nights fan, but hey, we all need to laugh.
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is now playing in theater and is burning up the box office alongside Barbie. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin, the movie stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it. You can check out a review of Oppenheimer from our own Eric Walkuski right here, and be sure to let us know what you thought of the film as well.
What are some of your favourite “remote drop” movies?