Apparently it’s not a bad thing for your professional career to be attached at the hip to Christopher Nolan. After getting his start as a cinematographer on a handful of Roger Corman films, Wally Pfister’s big break came after meeting Christopher Nolan at Sundance and working with him on Memento. From there, he has served as DP on every single one of Nolan’s films, gathering more and more acclaim until he finally won an Oscar for his work on Inception just last year. Now it looks like the Pfister is finally about to take the next logical step and make the jump to director, as he has finalized a deal to helm an as-of-yet untitled movie for Alcon Entertainment. Alcon co-founders Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove had this to say about the project:

“We have been talking to Wally about making his directorial debut with Alcon for over a decade since we all worked together on Insomnia… Wally is truly one of the most talented artists with whom we have ever collaborated. To now have the opportunity to work with Wally as a director on this truly remarkable project, is a company highlight for Alcon Entertainment.”

Unfortunately, we still know very little about the project aside from the fact that the script was written by relative newcomer Jack Paglen, who also had a script on the 2007 Black List called Joy. We don’t even know what genre this will fall under, whether it will be a straightforward drama or something more fantastical. At the moment, they are aiming for a fall shoot.

Either way, it will be interesting to see if Wally Pfister makes a successful transition to directing, joining the ranks of such esteemed DPs turned directors as Jan de Bont (Twister), Ernest Dickerson (Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight), and Andrzej Bartkowiak (Doom). Okay, I know there are better examples than that out there (Barry Sonnenfeld, Nicolas Roeg), but generally it’s not a career switch that happens all that often. Are you looking forward to Wally Pfister’s directorial debut? Will you check it out solely based on his previous work with Christopher Nolan?