Steven Soderbergh says he helped Christopher Nolan get his Insomnia gig
Steven Soderbergh loved Memento so much he helped solidify the nearly two-decade long partnership between Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros.
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Christopher Nolan and Steven Soderbergh Photo: Kevin Winter
History is full of interesting little domino effects. Here’s one from the cinema side: if Steven Soderbergh never intervened, we probably wouldn’t have Insomnia. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Soderbergh says he became Christopher Nolan’s champion after seeing a screening of Memento and thinking it was “a fucking instant classic.”
Months later, Nolan’s agent Dan Aloni called Soderbergh “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,’” Soderbergh recalled. “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?’”
