It might seem crazy to work on the project with DiCaprio's portrayal of the mogul still relatively fresh in the minds of movie-goers. However, Nolan's script is an adaption of the Michael Drosnin biography Citizen Hughes: The Power, the Money and the Madness which focusses on the latter years of Hughes' life and his descent into OCD-fuelled insanity. In contrast, Scorsese's film was centred more around his formative years and obsession with his Spruce Goose invention.
Considering Nolan's interest in characters with a degree of mental instability, think Cobb in Inception and Leonard in Memento, it's reasonable to think that he'll want to explore the weirdness of a man who spent his final years locked in a hotel room, wearing nothing but a dinner napkin, and fitting an air filtration system to his Chrysler. Supposedly the film will begin production in late 2012 for release in 2014, a decade after The Aviator, to avoid too much comparison.
At this point I'm willing to get excited about anything Nolan is working on, so we'll keep a close eye on any developments in this project.
