Christopher Nolan Has Two Brothers: One Is A Successful Writer/Producer. The Other Was Accused Of Being A Hitman Who Went By The Name "Oppenheimer"

Christopher Nolan's latest cinematic epic, "The Odyssey," arrives in theaters this weekend with a reported $250 million budget and a cast that includes Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson and Lupita Nyong'o.

Shot entirely with IMAX film cameras, the adaptation of Homer's ancient epic is yet another massive swing from a filmmaker who has spent more than two decades turning complicated, unconventional ideas into blockbuster entertainment.

But even Christopher Nolan might have difficulty inventing a story as bizarre as the one involving his own family.

Christopher is the middle of three sons born to Brendan and Christina Nolan. His younger brother became one of the most successful writers and producers in Hollywood. His older brother was accused by Costa Rican authorities of helping kidnap and murder an American accountant—and was allegedly operating under a false name that included the word "Oppenheimer."

Jonathan Nolan's Hollywood Career

Christopher's younger brother, Jonathan Nolan, has played an important role in several of his most celebrated films.

While attending Georgetown University, Jonathan wrote a short story titled "Memento Mori." Christopher adapted its central idea into his career-launching 2000 film, "Memento," which earned him his first Academy Award nomination.

The brothers subsequently collaborated on several major films:

• "The Prestige"
• "The Dark Knight"
• "The Dark Knight Rises"
• "Interstellar"

Jonathan also co-created HBO's "Westworld" with his wife and creative partner, Lisa Joy. The ambitious science-fiction series ran for four seasons between 2016 and 2022.

More recently, their Kilter Films production company helped bring the video game franchise "Fallout" to television. Jonathan served as an executive producer and directed the show's first three episodes. "Fallout" became a major success for Amazon Prime Video and has continued into a second season.

So that's Jonathan: a writer, director and producer whose résumé includes some of the most acclaimed and commercially successful movies and television series of the modern era.

Then there is Matthew Nolan.

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The Allegations Against Matthew Nolan

Christopher's older brother, Matthew Francis Nolan, worked in real estate in Chicago and lived far outside the entertainment industry occupied by his two brothers.

In 2009, the FBI arrested Matthew in Chicago after Costa Rica sought his extradition on charges of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated homicide and using a false document. The charges stemmed from the 2005 kidnapping and murder of an American accountant and real estate investor named Robert Curtis Cohen.

Cohen had managed investments for a Florida businessman named Robert Breska. According to documents submitted by Costa Rican authorities, approximately $7 million of Breska's money disappeared after being placed into investments connected to Cohen and one of his business partners.

Costa Rican prosecutors alleged that Breska hired Matthew Nolan to recover the missing money. Their investigation described Nolan as a supposed hired killer who concealed his occupation by presenting himself as a wealthy member of a family involved in the jewelry business.

That was the accusation. It was never proved in court.

The "Oppenheimer" Alias

The strangest detail of the entire case involved the name Matthew allegedly used while communicating with Cohen.

According to the evidence presented during the extradition proceedings, Nolan used the names "Matthew McCall," "Matthew McCall-Oppenheimer" and variations of those names.

Investigators produced emails sent from an address containing "mccall-opp" and signed "MM McCall-Oppenheimer." One message arranged a February 2005 meeting involving Cohen, Nolan and Breska. Another concerned a planned trip through Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

The documents also included a purported British passport in the name of Matthew Francis McCall. British authorities determined that the passport was fraudulent, and a U.S. judge concluded that the photograph on it appeared to be Nolan.

In other words, the Oppenheimer connection was not invented after Christopher made his 2023 blockbuster. It appeared in the actual evidence submitted in Matthew's 2009 extradition case.

The Murder Of Robert Cohen

Cohen and Nolan traveled to Costa Rica in early March 2005 and stayed in adjacent rooms at the InterContinental Hotel near San José.

On the morning of March 6, they reportedly ate breakfast together. Cohen subsequently disappeared. His body was discovered several days later beneath a bridge in the Limón region of Costa Rica, showing signs that he had been beaten and tortured.

A Costa Rican hotel employee named Luis Alonso Douglas Mejia was later convicted of kidnapping and murdering Cohen and sentenced to 27 years in prison.

Costa Rican authorities contended that Matthew Nolan had participated in the plot. They pointed to his relationship with Cohen, his efforts to recover Breska's money and his connections to Mejia. A vehicle Nolan had rented was also later found in Mejia's possession.

However, the evidence did not establish what role, if any, Nolan played in Cohen's disappearance and death.

The Extradition Case Falls Apart

After reviewing Costa Rica's evidence, a federal magistrate judge reached a split decision in August 2009.

The judge found sufficient probable cause to extradite Nolan on the charge of using a false document. But the judge found insufficient evidence to extradite him for kidnapping or murder.

The ruling was unusually direct. Although there was evidence that Nolan had performed "asset recovery" work connected to the missing $7 million, the judge found no adequate proof that he had been retained as a hired killer, planned Cohen's kidnapping, ordered Mejia's actions or committed any violent act.

The court concluded that it could only guess at Nolan's role in the events surrounding Cohen's death.

The United States initially authorized Nolan's extradition on the false-document charge. That charge was eventually dismissed, and Nolan was never extradited to Costa Rica.

The Prison Escape Plot

Matthew did, however, get into further legal trouble while being held at Chicago's Metropolitan Correctional Center.

Federal prosecutors charged him with making or obtaining objects intended to facilitate an escape. He was also accused of asking another person to destroy materials at his home that were connected to the Costa Rican extradition proceedings.

In May 2010, Nolan pleaded guilty to possessing prohibited objects and obstruction of justice. He received a total sentence of 14 months and was released from federal custody in August 2010.

A Story Stranger Than Fiction

Matthew Nolan was never convicted of murdering or kidnapping Robert Cohen. A federal judge found that Costa Rica's evidence did not even satisfy the probable-cause threshold required to extradite him on those charges.

At the same time, several of the strangest details associated with the case were real. Matthew was the subject of an international extradition request. He used false identities. Evidence showed him communicating under the name "McCall-Oppenheimer." And while awaiting a decision on his extradition, he pleaded guilty to possessing items intended to help him escape from jail.

Christopher Nolan has made films about memory loss, vigilantes, dream thieves, time manipulation, nuclear weapons and Greek monsters.

Yet the story of his older brother—the alleged hitman called "Oppenheimer"—may still be the strangest Nolan story of them all.