Christopher Nolan, the director of “The Odyssey,” pilots a detailed warship. And his film is expected to gross as much as $100 million this opening weekend, as fans made the epic journey across the country to see it in IMAX.
Bringing Homer’s 8th century epic to the big screen meant that the actors, including Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong’o, John Leguizamo and Robert Pattinson, were effectively living in 750 B.C.
Director Nolan’s house rules reportedly prohibit phones and water bottles on set (too noisy). He even admits to banning Uggs. The 55-year-old British-American director himself refuses to have a chair, only a flip phone and no email.
“Partly because cell phones are banned, he wants people to focus on making movies. He wants to make movies as old-fashioned as possible so people can focus on movies,” Jason Eberle, co-editor of The Philosophy of Christopher Nolan, told Page Six.
Nyong’o, who plays the dual role of Helen of Troy and her twin sister Clytemnestra, said in an interview with The Associated Press, “Not having a phone on set lends itself to a very focused set. Chris Nolan’s set has a different vibe. Everyone is present, ready, alert, and doing everything they can to keep the train on the tracks.”
“I try to minimize distractions,” Nolan told Stephen Colbert. “Despite the fact that we’re all dealing with this absurd process where this wall is real, and there’s a guy with lights and a microphone, you’re asking the actors to focus on reality… to do whatever we can to keep that reality, that bubble, intact.”
This was especially important because production was halted every three minutes to change the 70mm film needed to make the first complete IMAX film in Hollywood history (most films use specialized cameras only for action scenes).
“Not everyone has access to a great dressing room, and not everyone has access to top-notch transportation. He cuts corners on things that don’t affect the movie, and then he puts money into things that make the movie better. Making the movie better is his only focus,” one Hollywood source told Page Six, now calling Nolan “the most important filmmaker in the world.”
And all those rules are working. Nolan said “The Odyssey” was made early, using just 91 of the planned 100 days, and stayed within budget despite filming across multiple countries, including Greece, Italy, Iceland, Scotland, Malta and Morocco, and on elaborate sets, including an authentic Viking longship in the Mediterranean. (That sometimes meant seasick cast members being filmed vomiting into their sides.)
“Every decision, from the way a scene is shot to the details of the character, has a purpose behind it,” actor Raymie Lang, 18, who plays the teenage Antinous, told Page Six.
One of Nolan’s most awe-inspiring scenes shows the story’s Trojan Horse half submerged in an icy sea, with actor Jon Bernthal actually submerged in it for hours.
Director Nolan and his team assembled a 60-foot-tall puppet version of the man-eating Cyclops Polyphemus without using digital effects, and shot the scene in the darkness of the cave using real firelight to create the effect of shadows.
At the other end of the spectrum, the descent of Odysseus into the underworld, played by a bearded Matt Damon, was filmed during Iceland’s 24/7 bright White Nights.
“It was the hardest movie I’ve ever done. It doesn’t come close to (other movies),” Damon told 60 Minutes about how he almost drowned in one scene in the movie.
“When I first met[Nolan]he said at the end that this movie was going to be difficult,” Damon said of his third film with the director, following 2014’s “Interstellar” and 2024’s “Oppenheimer,” which won seven Oscars at the 96th Academy Awards.
“He looked at me and said, ‘No, this movie is going to be really difficult.’
Johnny Oleksinski, the newspaper’s film critic, wrote, “One of Odysseus’ best scenes, however, is not at all grand. It takes place in the hillside cottage of the witch Circe, whose greatest pleasure is turning warriors into pigs. The stunning Samantha Morton gives a speech in the barn about why her victims should be turned into pigs.”
And although the story was written by Homer, of course, Nolan’s script gave the actors plenty to work with, with Heath Ledger, Cillian Murphy, and Robert Downey Jr. winning Oscars. Nolan writes his own screenplays, sometimes alone (Inception, Tenet), sometimes with his brother Jonathan (Interstellar, The Dark Knight), and sometimes adapting other people’s stories (Memento). “Oppenheimer”).
But getting his work sold wasn’t always easy. The 2000 psychological thriller film “Memento” took a year to find a distributor.
From then on, his work continued to grow exponentially. This was done through his commitment to making scenes as realistic as possible, sometimes literally. He caused buildings to collapse for “The Dark Knight.” In “Tenet,” he bought a 747 and built a hangar building to crash it.
In 2024, Open Hemimar won seven Oscars, including Nolan’s first two films, winning Best Director and Best Picture.
Overall, Nolan’s blockbuster won 18 Academy Awards and grossed more than $6 billion.
“I feel a real responsibility to try to put as much on the screen as possible for the audience. To give the audience the maximum flavor. The maximum set. The maximum set of images and events that we can provide for any given story,” he said on “60 Minutes.”
“He has the ability to create a huge cinematic experience while focusing on the human side of the story,” said Lang, the young actor in “The Odyssey.” “You can see how much thought goes into every choice. It’s inspiring to see someone who has reached that level still passionately involved in every detail.”
