The Odyssey is destined to be one of Christopher Nolan’s most epic films given its subject matter, but it won’t be his longest. The Oscar winner admitted to the Associated Press that the upcoming tent pole will be “shorter” than the Oppenheimer.
“This is an epic movie, as the subject matter demands,” Nolan told the outlet. “But it’s shorter.”
“Oppenheimer” is Nolan’s Best Picture-winning biographical drama about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the construction of the atomic bomb during World War II, with a running time of 180 minutes. However, despite its three-hour length and R rating, it didn’t stop the film from becoming a blockbuster hit, grossing an astonishing $975 million worldwide. Therefore, expectations for “Odyssey” are extremely high. One might think that the film’s action elements would make it inherently easier to sell to audiences than the largely chatty Oppenheimer, but based on the strength of director Nolan’s brand, it’s clear he had no problem selling to audiences in the first place.
“There’s a tremendous amount of pressure,” Nolan told The Associated Press about his new film. “Those who take on the challenge of making ‘The Odyssey’ will be taking on the hopes and dreams of people around the world for epic films, and with that comes a huge responsibility. What we learned (from making the ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy) is that people love stories, characters that people love. What they want in a movie about them is a strong, honest interpretation. They want to know that the filmmakers went out of their way to do that. I really tried to make the best movie possible.”
Nolan previously told Empire magazine that he shot “over 2 million feet of film” during the making of “The Odyssey,” which was shot in 91 days. Matt Damon will headline “Odyssey” as Odysseus, reuniting with the director after “Interstellar” and “Oppenheimer.” Tom Holland plays his son Telemachus. This vast ensemble also includes Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, and Jon Bernthal.
“As a filmmaker, you’re looking for gaps in film culture, things that haven’t been done before,” Nolan told Empire of why he chose to adapt Homer’s Greek epic. “And what I saw was that all of the great mythological films that I grew up watching, like the Ray Harryhausen movies, I had never seen them done with the weight and authenticity that you could get in a low-budget, big-budget Hollywood IMAX production.”
“The Odyssey” will garner a lot of attention in theaters as the first Hollywood feature film to be shot entirely with IMAX cameras. A new Imax film casing called “Blimp” was created for cinema to significantly reduce the noise produced by Imax cameras, allowing dialogue-driven scenes to be shot on large format film.
The exact screening time and ratings for “Odyssey” have not yet been revealed. The film will be released in theaters on July 17th by Universal Pictures.
