It's a puzzle why the newly announced Christopher Nolan feature film "Interstellar" is such a secret. That's because some sources have already reported that Nolan's brother, Jonathan, was adapting a script based on the scientific theories and script treatment of renowned theoretical physicist, Kip Thorne. If you haven't heard of Thorne, it's a good idea you start reading, because you have a lot to catch up on. He's long been known for being an equal with Stephen Hawking and brought scads of new insights into astrophysics, most understandably in the realms of wormholes.
He's also the rare scientist who brought a highly cerebral film idea to the fore that deals with his theories of wormholes being capable of taking astronauts to other dimensions. Only Carl Sagan was ever able to do something similar successfully (albeit posthumously) with his book "Contact." And you can also include Hawking's "A Brief History of Time", despite being a straight-ahead documentary.
What makes the Nolan project all the more interesting is that Steven Spielberg was the one who initially pushed the movie through in 2006 as possible director. This was based off of the script treatment written by Thorne and the proposed co-producer, Lynda Obst. Not long after, Jonathan Nolan was brought in to construct a script, along with reported help from a team of scientists employed at Caltech to get all the obtuse science correct.
Now that it's been green lighted over five years later, it may have been a missed opportunity for Spielberg, even if he's pinned down as film historian lately. Christopher Nolan is the master of forward thinking features now, which makes "Interstellar" the potential to outdo even "Inception" in theoretical science. It also has rhyme and reason based on "Inception" going deep into the mind, and "Interstellar" going physically out to the furthest reaches of mind perception.
Other than "2001: A Space Odyssey", we haven't really seen an in-depth movie about inter-dimensional exploration. The above film was also so ambiguous in similar pursuits that anybody could get a gist of what was going on based on personal interpretation. When real science gets involved, however, we can finally be assured there won't be scientific hokum we've seen in far too many sci-fi movies.
The even better news behind "Interstellar" is also in the reported use of time travel, this time in space rather than on earth. It might be argued that "Looper" took time travel movies on earth to the farthest reaches audiences can understand for the time being. In space, it's a whole new ballgame, including creating paradoxes that might even throw off the Nolans themselves.
No matter if the time travel elements are somewhat familiar, it's the visitation into other dimensions that may make this film truly groundbreaking. Considering visiting other dimensions would confuse all human senses of visualization and navigation, you can see the massive challenge this film will have in depicting such things. Regardless, Christopher Nolan had a little practice in a few "Inception" scenes that tested the boundaries of normal physics.
All that's left now is to wait and wonder how complicated the film will become to the point of creating a discombobulated movie-going population. It may not have worked with another director, or even Spielberg. But Christopher Nolan seems to be a compelling muse for many to delve into scientific subjects they wouldn't ordinarily invest time in assimilating.
