production company
A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and v ...
founded by British-American
film director
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, pr ...
,
screenwriter
A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based.
...
Christopher Nolan
Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British-American filmmaker. Known for his lucrative Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. His films have grossed $5&nb ...
, and producer Emma Thomas. The name of the company is a play on
syncopation
In music, syncopation is a variety of rhythms played together to make a piece of music, making part or all of a tune or piece of music off-beat. More simply, syncopation is "a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of rhythm": a "place ...
, and was suggested to Nolan by his late father, Brendan, a classical music fan.Shone, p. 18. Syncopy has offices in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
.
History
Founded in 2001, the majority of Syncopy's productions have been distributed by
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
They partnered with
Legendary Pictures
Legendary Pictures Productions, LLC (doing business as Legendary Entertainment or simply Legendary) is an American film production and mass media company based in Burbank, California, founded by Thomas Tull in 2000. The company has collaborated ...
to produce ''
Batman Begins
''Batman Begins'' is a 2005 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan and written by Nolan and David S. Goyer. The film is based on the DC Comics character Batman, it stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman, with Michael Caine, Liam ...
'' (2005), ''
The Prestige
''The Prestige'' is a 1995 fantasy novel by British writer Christopher Priest. It tells the story of a prolonged feud between two stage magicians in late 1800s England. It is epistolary in structure; that is, it purports to be a collection of ...
'' (2006), ''
The Dark Knight
''The Dark Knight'' is a 2008 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan from a screenplay he co-wrote with his brother Jonathan. Based on the DC Comics superhero, Batman, it is the sequel to ''Batman Begins'' (2005) and the second insta ...
'' (2008), ''
Inception
''Inception'' is a 2010 science fiction action film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who also produced the film with Emma Thomas, his wife. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a professional thief who steals information by infiltr ...
'' (2010), and ''
The Dark Knight Rises
''The Dark Knight Rises'' is a 2012 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Jonathan Nolan, and the story with David S. Goyer. The film is based on the DC Comics character Batman, it is th ...
'' (2012). In 2013, Syncopy released
Zack Snyder
Zachary Edward Snyder (born March 1, 1966) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer. He made his feature film debut in 2004 with '' Dawn of the Dead'', a remake of the 1978 horror film of the same name. Since t ...
joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
with
Zeitgeist Films
Zeitgeist Films is a New York-based distribution company founded in 1988 which acquires and distributes films from the U.S. and around the world. In 2017, Zeitgeist entered into a multi-year strategic alliance with film distributor Kino Lorber. ...
to release
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
editions of Zeitgeist's prestige films. The first title in their partnership was ''
Elena
Elena may refer to:
People
* Elena (given name), including a list of people and characters with this name
* Joan Ignasi Elena (born 1968), Catalan politician
* Francine Elena (born 1986), British poet
Geography
* Elena (town), a town in Veliko ...
'' (2011), from director
Andrey Zvyagintsev
Andrey Petrovich Zvyagintsev (russian: Андре́й Петро́вич Звя́гинцев, p=ˈzvʲæɡʲɪntsɨf; born 6 February 1964) is a Russian film director and screenwriter. His film '' The Return'' (2003) won him a Golden Lion at ...
. Recently the production company has produced the science fiction film '' Interstellar'' (2014), the documentary short ''
Quay
A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (mooring location ...
'' (2015), the war film ''
Dunkirk
Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.Tenet'' (2020), all directed by Christopher Nolan.
Syncopy employs only four people, including Nolan and Thomas. In a 2018 interview for '' Vanity Fair'', Thomas said: "We're not empire builders, we're about the individual film." In October 2021, it was announced that Nolan's next film, titled '' Oppenheimer'', which will be shot in
IMAX
IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating.
Graeme F ...
and 65mm film, will be released on 21 July 2023. The film stars
Cillian Murphy
Cillian Murphy (; born 25 May 1976) is an Irish actor. Originally the lead singer, guitarist, and lyricist of the rock band The Sons of Mr. Green Genes, he turned down a record deal in the late 1990s and began acting on stage and in short an ...
in the title role, with
Hoyte van Hoytema
Hoyte van Hoytema (; born 4 October 1971) is a Swiss-born Dutch-Swedish cinematographer who studied at the National Film School in Łódź. His work includes '' Let the Right One In'' (2008), ''The Fighter'' (2010), ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' ...
,
Jennifer Lame
Jennifer Lame is an American film editor best known for her work on Noah Baumbach's films. Lame is also notable for her work on '' Manchester by the Sea'', ''Hereditary'', ''Tenet'', '' Black Panther: Wakanda Forever'', and '' Oppenheimer''.
...
, and
Ludwig Göransson
Ludwig Emil Tomas Göransson (; ; born 1 September 1984) is a Swedish composer, conductor and record producer. He has scored films such as ''Fruitvale Station'', the ''Rocky'' franchise entries ''Creed'' and ''Creed II'', ''Venom'', and '' Ten ...
all returning in their respective technical roles. This is Nolan's first film distributed by
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
, as well as his second film set in the backdrop of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...