Nathan Crowley Wiki: 5 Facts To Know About The 'Interstellar' Production Designer

Saying “Dunkirk” was one of the best real-event movies last year is an understatement. The movie tells a powerful story of soldiers’ thirst for another chance in life. It also shows the selflessness of some characters, who would do anything to help their countrymen. “Dunkirk” wouldn’t be such a success if it were not for some people like Nathan Crowley who was the production designer of the film. The production designer’s responsibility is to work on the visual look or the production. Crowley worked alongside the director and the producer to create the movie. So, who is Nathan Crowley? Born in 1966 in London, UK, Nathan Crowley became a production designer in 1991 and has been active since then. He is based in New York, and he works on Hollywood films. Crowley has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best production design for a couple of movies including “The Dark Night,” and “Interstellar.” He has been nominated for Oscar 2018 for “Dunkirk.” Other movies that he has worked on and received positive reactions are “Braveheart”, “Assassins” and “The Prestige”. Crowley has also been nominated for the BAFTA Award twice. Crowley is not only a production designer but also an art director who has worked on films like “Mission Impossible II.” He has made quite a good net worth working on these movies.

The director of “Dunkirk” Christopher Nolan intended to shoot the film without a script. He considered a change after he referred to “Interstellar.” The movie is similar to silent films in a way and many of its viewers noticed that there is almost lack of dialogue in the movie. Dunkirk explores the origin of the Second World War which takes place in the air, beaches, and boats. Nolan said that if it were not people like Nathan Crowley. Alongside Crowley, there was the director of photography, Hoyte van Hoytema, costume designer Jeffrey Kurland, editor Lee Smith, Andrew Jackson the visual effects supervisor and the special effects supervisor Scott Fisher. Some of the challenges the makers of the film experienced were logistical including creating an authentic narrow pier extended out to the sea where Allied troops would have bombs dropped on them. One of the most vital features on “Dunkirk” is known as “the mole.” Making that set piece was integral to the film as the mole played an essential role in the evacuation. The beach itself is shallow, and therefore, big ships can’t come close to the shore. As a result, hundreds of soldiers if not thousands crowd onto the narrow breakwater in an amazing visual. They push their way onto the little sliver that stretches a bit into the sea and they are completely vulnerable to air strike. You now know why Dunkirk has to be appreciated. But great things in life come from our struggles and the crew has perhaps made a decent net worth from the film.

“Dunkirk” was the seventh film that the production designer did with director Nolan. He applauded him for being intelligent and good at filmmaking. Crowley also stated that Nolan works on large-scale cinematic films like he loves to so they were similar in that kind of way and both are fans of David Lean. When Chris approached Crowley to work with him on the film he was amazed to be part of a film that narrated a big event in England’s history. He hadn’t taken a war film before and always wanted one, especially “Dunkirk” which hadn’t been done in using the modern film technology.

To prepare for the film, Crowley did some research and even read books to understand better how it was at Dunkirk. He linked up with Chris and talked a lot about the film while in his garage. Then he decided to visit Dunkirk himself to have a first-hand experience of the scene. Crowley met Chris Nolan there and they walked for over 15 miles that day, and they knew it was obvious that they had to film there.

Crowley admitted that while filming, they went through some natural challenges like terrible weather, but to them, it was a moment to make the film more exciting and so they took advantage of the weather to make a great-looking image. There was an instance the storm hit the mole ripping off the boards and it kind of allowed them to show the brutalism in the film.

There are a lot of spitfires still flying and so Crowley found the spitfires easily. However, finding the Mach 1 spitfires was harder. For the ships, they went Latvia where they got some boats then to Norway where they got the hospital ship. Crowley was not able to find a destroyer with engines though.

Crowley built some planes essentially. They build full-size spitfires that would land on the sea. Collins landed on the sea. To put all that together, Crowley and his team had to involve a lot of techniques.

According to Net Worth Post, Crowley has a net worth of $10 million which he has made from his career since 1991 by working on films including “Braveheart,” “Assassins,” “The Prestige,” “The Dark Night,” “Interstellar,” and “Dunkirk.”

“Dunkirk” was a great movie, and Crowley deserves all the credit for playing a vital role in the making of the film. Hopefully, he will take the Oscar 2018 award home.