You could be forgiven for thinking Christopher Nolan doesn’t give much thought to what the audience wants. His reputation as an exacting director precedes him. His last three films before adapting a millennia-old poem were a historical epic about an evacuation operation, a time-travel thriller that’s knotty to the point of confusion and a biopic on a physicist. But despite these odd and somewhat unfashionable choices, he cares deeply about the opinion of the average theatergoer.
In an interview with the Guardian ahead of the release of “The Odyssey,” Nolan said he was “petrified” by the idea of a negative response from audiences.
