Christopher Nolan’s Next Movie Is Getting an IMAX Release in Summer 2020

Warner Bros. made a very loud calendar announcement on Friday, revealing that director Christopher Nolan‘s next movie is slated to arrive next summer. The July 17, 2020 target date also comes with confirmation that, as with his previous film “Dunkirk,” this still-secretive new project will be getting an IMAX release.

Grain of salt time: We still have very little idea of what kind of film is actually going to occupy that slot when the time comes. Still, July has been a massively successful good-luck charm for Nolan, with all but one of his films from “The Dark Knight” onward released at some point during that summer month. (The lone exception is “Interstellar,” which angled for a more awards-friendly November release date.)

Following the acclaim surrounding “Dunkirk,” Nolan has since funneled a large portion of his efforts into areas outside of filmmaking. He led the charge to restore and display a traveling tour of “2001: A Space Odyssey” in 70mm at various theaters across the country. Last fall, he also co-signed an anti-motion-smoothing email campaign aimed at helping the average consumer set their TVs to the optimal viewing conditions. Nolan was also one of many filmmakers to try to help lead the cause to save FilmStruck, the video streaming service that shuttered late last year.

The IMAX confirmation also touches Nolan’s career-long interest in preserving a variety of film formats. At a discussion at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, he said, “Films that are made in an analog way ought to be presented in an analog way whenever possible. Film still stands as the best analogy for the way the eye sees. For my purposes, I find it to be the most immersive and emotionally involving tool for drawing the audience into the story.”