Christopher Nolan is one of the most prominent and popular directors working in blockbuster cinema. But just like any famous filmmaker, he has an underrated gem that is often overlooked. While The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, and Dunkirk get a lot of attention, Nolan’s sleight-of-hand thriller The Prestige is his lesser-known masterwork.
The Prestige is Nolan’s Jackie Brown or Miller’s Crossing. It’s surprising that the movie doesn’t get heavily discussed, because it stars Christian Bale (in his only non-Batman Nolan movie), Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, and even David Bowie. Here are 10 fascinating details from the making of The Prestige.
David Bowie Initially Turned Down The Role Of Nikola Tesla
David Bowie was an odd choice for the role of Nikola Tesla, because Bowie is a sex symbol and Tesla was celibate, but it ended up being pretty ideal casting. When he was first offered the part, Bowie turned it down. So Christopher Nolan personally flew out to meet Bowie face-to-face to tell him that he was the only actor he envisioned playing the role.
Nolan felt that Bowie’s larger-than-life presence would make the storyline involving Tesla inventing a teleportation machine more convincing. This reasoning caused Bowie to change his mind and accept the part.
The Script Took Five Years To Complete
All in all, the screenplay for The Prestige took five years to complete. Midway through the writing process, Christopher Nolan got swept up in the editing of Insomnia and didn’t have time to work on the script for The Prestige on a full-time basis. So, he recruited his brother Jonathan Nolan — with whom he’s worked on many screenplays — to work on the script.
The Nolan brothers worked on-and-off throughout the eventual five-year period as opposed to working on it continuously, as they dropped in and out of other projects.
The Line “I Know What You Are” Was Ad-Libbed By Rebecca Hall
Rebecca Hall’s supporting role in The Prestige was her big break that put her on the map. She’s since gone on to play critically acclaimed roles in Christine, The Town, and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (as well as not so critically acclaimed roles in Iron Man 3 and Holmes & Watson).
The moment in The Prestige when Hall’s character says, “I know what you are,” wasn’t actually scripted. Hall improvised it, and initially felt bad about it because she worried she’d given away the twist ending. However, Christopher Nolan liked it and left it in the movie.
The Prestige Got Delayed By Batman Begins
After completing Insomnia, Christopher Nolan planned to follow it up with The Prestige. However, he was subsequently hired by Warner Bros. to reboot the Batman film franchise, and production of The Prestige got delayed while Nolan reinvented the comic book film genre with Batman Begins.
When Batman Begins hit theaters, Nolan resumed work on The Prestige, and entered talks with Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman to star in the movie.
The Sets Were Designed In Christopher Nolan’s Garage
Christopher Nolan wanted to be able to visualize The Prestige’s settings while he was writing the script, so he recruited production designer Nathan Crowley to start designing the sets in Nolan’s garage while the script was still being written.
Christopher and Jonathan Nolan included visual aids such as drawings, side-notes, and scale models in their shooting script for The Prestige, which they finalized on January 13, 2006, just three days before filming began on January 16.
Despite Playing A Terrible Magician, Ricky Jay Was The Only Real Magician In The Cast
The character played by Ricky Jay in The Prestige is a terrible magician, but Jay was actually the only real magician in the movie’s cast.
He also acted as the film’s magic consultant, and coached lead actors Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale on their sleight-of-hand techniques.
There’s An Average Of One Time Jump Per Minute
As with a lot of Christopher Nolan’s movies, The Prestige jumps back and forth across the narrative timeline throughout its runtime. There’s a grand total of 146 time jumps, either jumping earlier in the timeline or ahead into the future.
Taking into account the film’s runtime, The Prestige has an average of one time jump per minute.
Scarlett Johansson’s Unusual British Accent Led To A Fan Theory That Her Character Isn’t British
While critics mostly responded positively to The Prestige, one aspect of the film that received some negative critique was Scarlett Johansson’s wobbly British accent in the role of Olivia Wenscombe. In fact, Johansson’s accent has led to the formulation of a fan theory that her character is actually an American who is putting on a not-very-good British accent.
There is some merit to this theory, because all the other actors clearly worked with vocal coaches. The Australian Hugh Jackman and the English Christian Bale and Andy Serkis all nail their own accents.
The Script Was Structured Like The Illusion From The Story
Christopher Nolan is no pedestrian when it comes to storytelling. He mathematically structures his screenplays to slowly build up tension or tie the shape of the movie to its themes and messages. The Prestige is no different. It has a traditional three-act structure, but these three acts are used to represent the three stages of the illusion in the story: the pledge, the turn, and finally, the prestige.
Since the movie was based on a novel, Nolan had a tough time figuring out the cinematic alternatives of all the literary devices that were used to tell the story in its original form.
Sam Mendes Wanted To Direct This Movie
When Christopher Priest’s The Prestige was first optioned to become a movie, Sam Mendes wanted to direct it as his second film after his debut American Beauty, which had just received seven Oscar nominations. However, a separate offer came from Newmarket Films, which wanted the book for writer-director Christopher Nolan, who was in post-production on Memento at the time.
A VHS copy of Nolan’s first film, Following, was driven out to Priest via motorcycle, and the author was so impressed that he let Nolan adapt his book. He also saw it as a chance to give an up-and-coming filmmaker an opportunity over an established one — although Nolan wouldn’t make the film until after Batman Begins made him a household name.