Christopher Nolan’s \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d<\/a> was an epic undertaking for all involved. The cast and crew embarked on a globe-trotting mission to bring the story of Odysseus’ homecoming to life in the most realistic way possible.<\/p>\n Here’s a look at \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d<\/a> in theaters Friday, by the numbers.<\/p>\n It\u2019s shorter than \u201cOppenheimer\u201d<\/a> (180 minutes), which was at least partially because IMAX film projectors can\u2019t handle more than three hours. \u201cIt\u2019s an epic film, as the subject matter demands,\u201d Nolan told The Associated Press<\/a>. \u201cBut it is shorter.\u201d In case you don’t want to do the math, that’s 2 hours, 52 minutes.<\/p>\n The shoot happened across six months though it was scheduled for 100 days. The efficient production finished nine days early.<\/p>\n \u201cI found that after 100 days, it\u2019s very diminishing returns. It\u2019s very tough to keep getting new material because everyone\u2019s so exhausted,\u201d Nolan said. \u201cWe finished a little early because a lot of things broke our way in terms of weather or getting the conditions we needed or wanted to make particular shots. And at the end of that 91 days, I certainly couldn\u2019t have done another 9 days, so I think the shoot took the length of time that it needed to take.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d filmed in Greece, Italy, Morocco, Iceland, Scotland and the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, being on a real location, shooting certain things like when the crew is out setting sail on that boat, or going through a storm, I want it to feel almost like a documentary,\u201d Nolan said. \u201cI want to just put the audience there, like they\u2019re really there.\u201d<\/p>\n Hathaway appeared in \u201cThe Dark Knight Rises,\u201d Damon in \u201cOppenheimer\u201d and both were in \u201cInterstellar.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n According to the production, that’s longer than the distance from Toronto to New York.<\/p>\n \u201cBy shooting on IMAX 70mm film, you\u2019re really letting the screen disappear,\u201d Nolan said. \u201cYou\u2019re getting a feeling of 3D without the glasses. You\u2019ve got a huge screen and you\u2019re filling the peripheral vision of the audience. You\u2019re immersing them in the world of the film.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead of being a hindrance, though, it kept everyone hyper-focused.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s an expensive camera<\/a>. You got two and a half minutes with each roll of film, so you gotta get it in and keep it moving,\u201d said Lupita Nyong\u2019o. \u201cThere\u2019s a different vibration on a Chris Nolan set. Everyone is present, everyone is ready, alert, and doing their bit to keep the train on the tracks.\u201d<\/p>\n The camera, plus the noise-reducing muffler they dubbed \u201cthe blimp\u201d that encased it, weighs approximately 300 pounds.<\/p>\n Costume designer Ellen Mirojnick oversaw a team of 175 artisans in Los Angeles and a crew of over 500 around the world who helped bring the costumes to life.<\/p>\n Aulos and the lyre provided the bedrock of the score, but G\u00f6ransson also used bronze gongs to develop a unique soundscape for the film.<\/p>\n \u201cI really loved the idea of approaching the music from the point of view that\u2019s more the materiality of that world,\u201d Nolan said. \u201cMy point to him was I\u2019m trying to do this kind of earthy accessible kind of grounded version of the story \u2026 we should probably have the same discipline for the music and just try and create something from a different set of sounds.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat was fairly early on in the shoot, and it really brought home to me what we were trying to achieve with this movie,\u201d said actor Himesh Patel. \u201cWe were shooting the scene where we all rush in and we\u2019re all just storming the whole city. It\u2019s all going crazy. It is fire light. There\u2019s people screaming. There are people being killed. And the amount of actors and extras is kind of unfathomable. And then Hoyte (van Hoytema), the DP, turned to Matt (Damon) and went, \u2018this is a flashback.\u2019\u2026the scale of it suddenly came home to us all that this is just the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n That’s about the height of a telephone pole. Production has not said exactly how many Trojan Horses there were, but there were more than one.<\/p>\n Much of the cast and crew, including Nolan and Emma Thomas, hiked up a rugged hill to Castello di Santa Caterina every day. This is a moderately challenging hike that requires a good level of fitness.<\/p>\n \u201cI hiked one day. I was like \u2018I\u2019m not doing this again,\u2019\u201d Leguizamo said. \u201cI mean, 40 minutes climbing up that 900-foot cliff and then you got to act for 12 hours? No, I took the helicopter.\u201d<\/p>\n About 1\/3 the length of a standard soccer field, this full-scale reconstruction of a Viking longship played Odysseus\u2019 ship in the film. The working, wooden ship has 25 pairs of oars.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of the actors had to learn how to row,\u201d Damon said. \u201cWe went to a rowing camp. We had to really move this hundred-ton ship. That\u2019s not a standard acting job, right? You\u2019re playing a role, but you\u2019re also really serving a real purpose on the ship and moving it around.\u201d<\/p>\n The floor to ceiling height is about two letters of the Hollywood sign, stacked atop one another, high. The design of the Cyclops was something that Nolan and production designer Ruth De Jong started on very early in production, inspired partially by Goya\u2019s painting \u201cSaturn Devouring His Son.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat was a sort of touchstone for the mood, the sort of horror of it that we wanted to achieve,\u201d Nolan said. \u201cAnd Ruth came up with a very brilliant idea fairly early on of rotating the eye, having the eye vertical in the face and that just clicked together for me.\u201d<\/p>\n Nolan studied many translations and adaptations to write his screenplay.<\/p>\n Hathaway (\u201cLes Mis\u00e9rables\u201d), Charlize Theron (\u201cMonster\u201d) and Nyong\u2019o (\u201c12 Years a Slave\u201d) all won for acting. Damon won for screenplay (\u201cGood Will Hunting\u201d).<\/p>\n172: Runtime, in minutes, for \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d<\/h2>\n
91: Days of shooting<\/h2>\n
6: Countries filmed in<\/h2>\n
3: Number of times both Anne Hathaway and Matt Damon have worked with Nolan<\/h2>\n
2.1 million: Length of IMAX film shot, in feet<\/h2>\n
2.5-3: Minutes of continuous shooting on the IMAX film camera before it needs to be reloaded<\/h2>\n
5,300: Number of costumes designed and produced<\/h2>\n
35: Gongs rented by composer Ludwig G\u00f6ransson<\/h2>\n
2,000: Extras used to film the siege of Troy<\/h2>\n
35: The height, in feet, of the Trojan Horses constructed<\/h2>\n
45: Duration of the 900-foot uphill hike, in minutes, to film the Ithaca scenes<\/h2>\n
1: Number of times actor John Leguizamo attempted the hike<\/h2>\n
115: Length, in feet, of the Draken Harald H\u00e5rfagre<\/h2>\n
95: Height, in feet, of Nestor\u2019s Cave in Greece, where they filmed the encounter with the Cyclops<\/h2>\n
12,109: Lines in the poem<\/h2>\n
4: Oscar-winners in the cast<\/h2>\n
32: Locations in the U.S. and Canada showing the film in IMAX 70mm<\/h2>\n