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Nolan Picks Cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema for 'Interstellar'

by Alex Billington
April 23, 2013
Source: Film Abides

It looks like we finally have the name of Chris Nolan's new cinematographer. Ever since his original DoP, Wally Pfister (who's worked with him on everything since Memento), went to direct his own movies, fans have been wondering who he would get instead. Especially considering his new movie is the ambitious sci-fi Interstellar, starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway. Word on Dutch site Film Abides is that Swiss cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema mentioned in an interview with "VARAgids" that he would be working on a "major Hollywood movie" next - meaning Interstellar. So this is Nolan's new Director of Photography? He seems like an inspired choice if it is, with strong visual sensibilities that we've seen before.

Hat tip to Nolan Fans for first catching this. We reached out to Paramount Pictures, handling the US release of Interstellar, for final confirmation but have not heard back yet. While he may not be well known in the US, Hoyte Van Hoytema is a much bigger name in Europe. He was the DP on Tomas Alfredson's original Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In and received a BAFTA nom for Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. He also worked on David O. Russell's The Fighter, Kristian Petri's Bad Faith, Mikael Marcimain's Call Girl, and already finished shooting Spike Jonze's Her. In a 2012 ASC article on "Euro Style", Hoyte stated:

"I think it is always easier to be creative if you have had a little bit of distance to (the subject matter) somehow," he suggests. "I think time gives things perspective, and so, you can be a little bit more analytical about certain things. You have many references in art and documentary imagery that helps you see how the time is defined in a visual sense. It’s nice, as a cinematographer, to be able to re-invent yourself a little bit by (visualizing) aesthetics that people know very well. There is a little nostalgia there also, and I think nostalgia is a good provocateur for creating visuals."

There is no doubt that Hoyte will be reinventing himself with Interstellar under Nolan's direction, that is for sure. Interstellar, from a script by Jonathan Nolan, is an exploration of physicist Kip Thorne's theories of gravity fields, wormholes and several hypotheses that Albert Einstein was never able to prove. Nolan's take is said to depict a "heroic interstellar voyage to the furthest reaches of our scientific understanding." All of this sounds awesome. It was confirmed at CinemaCon recently that Interstellar will have portions shot on IMAX, like all of Nolan's past few movies, which means Hoyte will have to push himself even further than he ever has before. Interstellar is currently scheduled for release in November 2014. We'll keep you updated.

Hoyte Van Hoytema won the Chlotrudis Award for Let the Right One In, multiple Guldbagge Awards and Göteborg's Nordic Vision Award; and received a BAFTA Award nomination for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

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