The Prestige

Christopher Nolan's The Prestige opened in 2006 between Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008) (Nolan's first non-superhero feature after the Warner Bros. franchise launch) and grossed over $109 million worldwide on a budget of approximately $40 million. It earned two Academy Award nominations at the 79th ceremony in 2007: Best Cinematography for Wally Pfister (Nolan's regular DP from Memento through Interstellar) and Best Art Direction.

The screenplay is by Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan Nolan, adapting Christopher Priest's 1995 novel of the same name. The Priest source novel had won the World Fantasy Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1995-1996, but had remained out of print for years before the film's release brought it back into mainstream availability. The brothers had been developing the project across the early 2000s, with the screenplay drafted partly during the production of Insomnia (2002).

The cast pairs Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall and Andy Serkis, with David Bowie in a substantial supporting role as Nikola Tesla, his last significant feature performance before his death in 2016. The Tesla material is loosely historical: Tesla actually conducted his Colorado Springs experiments in 1899-1900 and was working toward wireless transmission of electricity at the time, with the Wardenclyffe Tower project on Long Island (which Nolan's film references). The film is regularly cited alongside Memento and The Dark Knight as one of Nolan's most narratively ambitious works.