'Workaholic' Christopher Nolan and Producer Wife Emma Thomas Put Kids on Backburner For Movie Making — Director Admits He'd Like to Work 'All the Time' as Major Project 'The Odyssey' Begins Filming
Thomas and Nolan have been a power couple since marrying in 1997.
March 5 2025, Published 3:45 p.m. ET
Christopher Nolan can't slow down. The director, still riding high on his Oscar and box office success Oppenheimer, has just set sail for his next adventure, a big-screen version of Homer's The Odyssey.
And as has been throughout his career, producer and wife, Emma Thomas, will be right by his side for the extended, around-the-globe shoot, RadarOnline.com can reveal, leaving their family behind once more.
The director's work has taken him around the globe.
Nolan, 54, and Thomas, 53, have teamed up for 13 blockbuster movies over the past three decades, often taking them to exotic locations, and away from their four children: Flora, born in 2001, Rory, Oliver, and finally Magnus, born in 2008.
But that seems to be just the way they like it. Speaking to Empire magazine, Thomas said the work is always on their mind – even when they are supposed to be on vacation.
Thomas explained: "Oftentimes our pattern is that we go on holiday right after a movie's come out. So there's usually some version of checking in on (the) box office and so on every morning."
Then she confessed: "Chris isn't very good at not working on a film. So he's always chomping at the bit to get back at it."
That takes him and Thomas away from kids, including Flora and Magnus.
Nolan reluctantly agreed that was a "fair characterization," adding it's hard to keep a healthy balance between work and life.
He shared a story involving Thomas: "I remember times when I'd be in England and you'd be in America, and I would be calling to talk to the kids and talk to you and you would start bringing up work.
"And for me it would be 10 o'clock at night and I'm saying 'Hang on, that's not fair. I wouldn't have taken the studios call. Why am I talking to you about work? Seems an unfair abuse of access.'"
He added: "But yeah, you muddle through," clarifying that his wife and kids have a "natural separation."
The couple have directed and produced 13 movies together.
Thomas chimed in, revealing that the couple were soon to be empty nesters, with three of their kids already in college, and one on the way.
She said: "I think we're going to have to set some new guidelines."
To which Nolan instantly replied: "And then we can work all the time!"
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That work ethic will be greatly tested on the set of The Odyssey, which Universal Pictures announced on X, writing: "Christopher Nolan’s next film The Odyssey is a mythic action epic shot across the world using brand new IMAX film technology."
"The film brings Homer’s foundational saga to IMAX film screens for the first time and opens in theaters everywhere on July 17, 2026."
Already the all-star cast features Nolan regulars like Matt Damon, who was in the directors' Oppenheimer and Interstellar, and Anne Hathaway, star of Interstellar and The Dark Night Rises, along with big names like Tom Holland and fiancé Zendaya.
Holland previously joked the money-counters at the studio are thrilled the in-love couple have both signed on for the pic, because, as the Spider-Man star relayed it would mean only "One hotel room!"
