Idea of exploring a new world was bracing for me: Jonathan Nolan on post-apocalyptic show ‘Fallout’

Mumbai: "Fallout" is a story about the end of the world but it is also about the beginning of many new ones, says writer-director Jonathan Nolan, who is exploring dystopia again after hit show "Westworld".

Nolan has been the co-writer on many of his brother, filmmaker Christopher Nolan's films such as "The Prestige", "The Dark Knight" trilogy, "Interstellar", and "Memento".

The writer-director has created a separate identity for himself in television with his critically-acclaimed, high concept sci-fi shows like "Person of Interest", "Westworld" and now "Fallout", an adaptation of a popular video game series of the same name. He has created the new show with wife and creative partner Lisa Joy.

Asked why he is so interested in dystopian stories, Nolan said it may be because humans are designed to think about how things could go badly.

"It scratches a Darwinian itch for most people... One of the things that was so exciting to me about 'Fallout' is that it's about the end of the world, but it's also about the beginning of many new worlds," Nolan, who was in Mumbai recently to promote the series, told PTI in an interview.

The writer-creator has been a fan of the game series, which is set in a post-apocalyptic world where players navigate through the wasteland and encounter mutated creatures and other survivors.

He believes despite its dystopian setting, there is an unexpected thread of optimism that runs through the games and his show.

"Where what you're seeing is not the ruins of one world, you're seeing the foundations of another world, of a new world, of a new culture that springs out of it... “We end the world all the time. Humans are also very good at building the world over again. And I think that impulse, that idea, was bracing one for me," he said.

Both "Westworld", which ran for four seasons on HBO, and "Fallout" share a similarity in the world they are set in -- a place structured like Western movies but one where machines and technology play a dominating role.

Westerns, popularly known for their cowboys and outlaws stories, came to define the genre of movies set in the American Old West.

Nolan said he grew up watching a lot of Western films, a fascination he shares with wife Joy, who was also the co-creator of "Westworld".

"It creates a moral arena, but also a wide open space in which the characters have no other authority to rely on. They have to make their own moral decisions, and that's exactly how the 'Fallout' games are structured.

"As a player, you're given different choices. You can play as a good guy, a white hat in the parlance of 'Westworld' or a black hat as a more dastardly person or somewhere in between. I think that the fantasy of being on your own and making decisions is something persistent when it comes to technology," he added.

Nolan, who has directed three out of eight episodes of the new show, said he has always been fascinated by technology and human ingenuity.

"There's more than a little bit of political commentary about the degree to which we have faith in these devices to save us. When the truth is that technology is at best morally neutral.

"I can't help but be a techno optimist. I feel like all this ingenuity, hopefully, at the end of the day, helps us more than hurts us. But if you look at history, that is a decidedly ambiguous proposition," Nolan said.

"Fallout", featuring an ensemble cast of Ella Purnell, Walton Goggins, Aaron Moten, Kyle MacLachlan, Sarita Choudhury, Michael Emerson, and Moises Arias, will start streaming on Prime Video from April 1.

The show is set in an alternate history of Earth where advances in nuclear technology after WWII led to the emergence of a retrofuturistic society and a subsequent resource war. The survivors took refuge in fallout bunkers known as Vaults, built to preserve humanity in the event of nuclear annihilation.

It focuses on Lucy (Purnell), an idealistic young woman who leaves behind her home in Vault to venture out into the irradiated hellscape her ancestors left behind.

Nolan was introduced to the "Fallout" games in the late 2000s when he took a break from "The Dark Knight" movies, centering around the iconic DC superhero the Batman.

"I knew nothing about the games other than that I'd been told they were spectacular and weird. And I remember my experience of playing 'Fallout 3' for the first time, and I'm hoping this is the experience the audience has watching our series, a continual sense of surprise with the storytelling. But also a surprise with the tone." For Nolan, "Fallout" presented the perfect opportunity for adaptation and he wants the other installments of the games to be adapted for the screen as well.

"We were able to tell an original story within that mythos and that to me hits the sweet spot. As a fan of the game, it would be fun to see an adaptation of 'Fallout 3', 'New Vegas' or 'Fallout 4'." The British-American writer was recently in India to promote the show with lead star Purnell.

He revealed he had visited the country many years ago when he was in his 20s.

"It's long overdue for me. I came first when I was in my twenties just to experience the place. I came in the middle of summer to Delhi and it was very hot and humid. And I came alone and had a good experience, but a brief one," he added.

"Fallout" is showrun by Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner. The show is produced by Amazon MGM Studios and Kilter Films in association with Bethesda Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks.