Originally a collaborative project between Nolan's younger brother Jonathan, astrophysicist Kip Thorne and Steven Spielberg, the film (which Nolan took over after Spielberg backed out, partly to do Robopocalypse) sets up a not-too-distant future where an agricultural crisis and perilous weather conditions threaten the existence of humanity.
Cue Matthew McConaughey as Cooper, an engineer-turned-farmer who must leave his two children behind and travel through time, space and wormholes in search of a potential new home for what's left of the world's population.
The mission is dreamed up by Nasa's Professor Brand (played by Michael Caine), who sends his scientist/astronaut daughter Amelia (Hathaway) with Cooper.
Though Hathaway has been somewhat reclusive since her widely-backlashed Oscar win for Les Miserables last year, Nolan deemed her perfect for the role.
"Anne is an extraordinary talent who can really lose herself in a character," he says. "She has cerebral qualities and an interest in science, so it was natural to see her as a character who views the world through a scientific lens."
The underlying thread of the film is love, but it's the scientific possibilities that enamoured Hathaway, whose first step in preparing for the shoot was finding a DVD of astronomer Carl Sagan's Emmy-winning series Cosmos. Sessions with Nolan - who she had worked with playing Catwoman on The Dark Knight Rises - and Thorne followed to gain a handle on the specific physics discussed by Amelia.
Though bringing the space scenes to life was at times gruelling (Hathaway showed signs of hypothermia at one point during filming in Iceland), she says inhabiting Amelia left her with a fresh sense of her role in society - and closure on her childhood dream of becoming an astronaut.
"I appreciated on this movie more than ever before that I am an actor. If we find ourselves in a crisis like this I am not going be invited into the room where it's discussed how we are going to save ourselves.
"I'm going to hold people's hands and make them feel good, but I'm not going to be in that group of people.
"When you're young you have to believe that you can do anything, but I appreciate so much through this movie the difference between playing someone who's really capable of doing this stuff and what it would actually take to be someone like that.
"I don't think I'm going to understand the science and be at a level of a Kip Thorne. I arrogantly, foolishly or youthfully thought that maybe I someday could, but I realised while doing this movie ... I am an actor."
Who: Anne Hathaway
What: Interstellar
When: Opens at cinemas today
- TimeOut
