Christopher Nolan's Insomnia (2002)

Nolan saw Erik Skjoldbjærg's Norwegian original before Following was even released, watched it twice and wanted to remake it. Jonathan Demme was first attached to direct, but in the end the film went to Nolan. It was his first studio film and his first time working with major stars.

Al Pacino plays the Los Angeles detective Will Dormer and Robin Williams the crime writer Walter Finch, a role Nolan said would show audiences "a 'new' Robin Williams". Hilary Swank, who had won an Oscar for Boys Don't Cry, plays Ellie Burr, the young local detective who admires Dormer.

Filming lasted three months, from April to June 2001, mostly in British Columbia. The foggy beach where Dormer shoots his partner is Clementine Creek in Indian Arm, outside Vancouver, and the chase across floating logs was filmed in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island.

Insomnia premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and opened in American cinemas on May 24, 2002. It took about $113.8 million worldwide on a $46 million budget.

Critics liked it. Roger Ebert wrote that, unlike most remakes, it was "not a pale retread, but a re-examination of the material, like a new production of a good play". Skjoldbjærg, who directed the original, said he felt lucky that Nolan had taken it on.

It received no Oscar nominations, but the London Film Critics' Circle named Nolan British Director of the Year. He later called Insomnia his most underrated film and "one of my most personal films".