Christopher Nolan directs to make "most extreme version of a story possible"

Christopher Nolan is among the great Hollywood directors of his generation. His blockbusters have won 18 Academy Awards and hauled in more than $6 billion. Next, Nolan will release, this summer, his adaptation of the nearly 3,000-year-old story, "The Odyssey." We met the 55-year-old British American in his office in L.A., where he wrote epics including "Oppenheimer," "Dunkirk," "Inception," "Interstellar" and "The Dark Knight." A Nolan movie is a spectacle, big and loud, at the limits of what's possible. But a Nolan story is grace – imperfect people revealing what it is to be human. "The Odyssey" is Nolan's most ambitious yet. It had to be, he told us, because he imagines every film is the last he will ever make. Christopher Nolan: I feel a real responsibility to try and get as much on screen for the audience as possible to give the audience the fullest flavor, the fullest set of images and events that we can give them for a given story. Scott Pelley: What are the essential elements of a Christopher Nolan film? Christopher Nolan: I always try to have a point of view on the story that's from inside the film. So, I'm not looking at the characters from 30,000 feet; I'm trying to be in the race, in the maze with them. 'Cause I wanna try and give the audience a sense of what a place would smell like, what it would feel like. Christopher Nolan: But you're also trying to make the most involving, the most extreme version of a story possible. …