Oppenheimer From Biography to Blockbuster

Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas in Conversation with Kai Bird This event was recorded live on October 11, 2023. Oppenheimer filmmakers Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas join in a discussion with Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer, about the challenges of turning complicated history into film. A highly acclaimed box-office smash, Oppenheimer is based on a historical biography, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin. The filmmakers and the author reveal the creative process of bringing Oppenheimer from the page to the screen. Nolan and Thomas’ films, including Tenet, Dunkirk, Interstellar, Inception, and The Dark Knight trilogy, have been worldwide hits, garnering 11 Oscars and 36 nominations. Bird, who is director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the CUNY Graduate Center, has written many acclaimed books, including Hiroshima’s Shadow and The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter. Presented with the Leon Levy Center for Biography. For more information about our events, visit: