A 3.19 article by Nerdist contributor Kyle Hill reveals that Interstellar co-screenwriter Jonathan Nolan didn’t agree with the ending that his brother Chris went with. Speaking on 3.28 during a seminar at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Jonathan said that he would have preferred a “much more straightforward” finale. He basically said that Matthew McConaughey would have died in the middle of the “Einstein-Rosen bridge” or wormhole.
The second I read this I realized that I don’t ever want to see Interstellar again. I honestly wouldn’t sit through it if you paid me $50 or even $100 to do so. Okay, I would see it again for $1000. But the more I think back upon that exasperating film, the more repelled I feel.
Obviously ignoring the future films of Chris Nolan is not an option for a guy like myself, but Interstellar was such a punishing and frustrating experience for me that I’m pretty much off the Nolan boat for now. Before Interstellar my attitude, like everyone else’s, was “Nolan!…one of the best and boldest auteurs of our time!…I’m excited to see what he’s made.” Post-Interstellar my attitude has been “I really don’t want to sit through another fucking Nolan film that I won’t be able to hear half of because of the deliberately awful sound mix…a film that will probably confound me and almost certainly won’t make sense all around the track.”
From here on the words “directed by Chris Nolan” are going to make me sigh and flinch slightly and shake my head ruefully and say “God, here we go with more Nolan density and obfuscation and arty-farty, high-tech pretentiousness…but partly filmed in IMAX!!”