Key Points
Christopher Nolan said that The Odyssey won’t be longer than his previous film, the three-hour Oppenheimer.
The Oscar-winning director noted “there’s a massive amount of pressure” in adapting the Greek epic.
Matt Damon leads the film as King Odysseus, starring alongside Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, and Zendaya.
Christopher Nolan‘s films have a penchant for both impressive storytelling and long runtimes.
However, the famed director is assuring audiences his latest project, The Odyssey, will not surpass the three-hour runtime of his Oscar-winning film Oppenheimer. Speaking with the Associated Press, Nolan said the highly anticipated summer flick is “an epic film, as the subject matter demands.”
As for how long The Odyssey will keep audiences in their seats, Nolan said “it is shorter” than his biographical thriller starring Cillian Murphy as the physicist behind the first atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer.
The film is also the first Hollywood feature to be shot entirely with IMAX cameras, and physical limitations of IMAX projectors restrict films to being no more than 180 minutes (3 hours).
Cillian Murphy in ‘Oppenheimer’
Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures
“There’s a massive amount of pressure,” Nolan told the AP about the celebrity-filled film. “Anyone taking on The Odyssey is taking on the hopes and dreams of people for epic movies everywhere and that comes with a huge responsibility.”
The Odyssey is Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s ancient Greek epic poem of the same name. It chronicles Odysseus’ perilous 10-year journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War.
Matt Damon leads The Odyssey as Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, and also stars Anne Hathaway as Odysseus’ wife Penelope, Tom Holland as Odysseus’ son Telemachus, Zendaya as the goddess Athena, Benny Safdie as Agamemnon, Jon Bernthal as Menelaus, and Charlize Theron as Calypso.
Matt Damon and Himesh Patel in ‘The Odyssey’
Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures
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Nolan also shared that making The Dark Knight trilogy helped prepare him to take on the Greek epic, saying, “What people want from a movie about a beloved story, a beloved set of characters, is they want a strong and sincere interpretation.”
He added, “They want to know that a filmmaker has gone to the mat for it. I really tried to make the best film possible.”
The Odyssey arrives in theaters July 17.
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