Christopher Nolan has admirers in all sorts of unlikely places. During a Q&A following a recent Australian screening of The Master, director Paul Thomas Anderson revealed he's a fan of Nolan's Batman trilogy.

"I’ve never really been asked to do [big tentpole blockbusters]," Anderson said, according to Cigarettes & Red Vines. "You look at what Christopher Nolan did with Batman, that’s like the meeting of the highest level of artistic skill and a kind of commerciality and appeal to a wide range of people which is what anybody would want. It’s kind of unparalleled actually, and they don’t come to me with those. And that’s alright."

It's not too surprising that Anderson likes Nolan's work. Although Nolan makes blockbuster movies, he has a cinematic eye that Anderson likely relates to, and he also likes to pose Big Questions, even if he doesn't always answer them. We have a feeling if Anderson were to make a Hollywood tentpole, it would look something along the lines of Nolan's Batman movies.

But Nolan isn't the only filmmaker Anderson is a fan of. When asked what movie he'd teach in a lecture if he was a film school professor, he said Seth MacFarlane's Ted. Cigarettes & Red Vines says Anderson chose that film because "it was truly hilarious and so well written, one of the funniest/best films he's seen recently," and that it "just takes you back to the core of what films are about, enjoyment." Definitely not what we expected, but we appreciate Anderson's range. Maybe he and MacFarlane could collaborate on something soon ... like an Academy Awards opening video.