Warner Bros.The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan’s next cinematic epic, arrives in less than a year, and he’s finally revealed why he chose the classic tale as his next project.
There were plenty of rumors about what the director was going to follow up 2023’s Oppenheimer with. Chief among them was a period piece about vampires, and modern remake of 1983’s Blue Thunder, a neo-noir action thriller about a Los Angeles Police Department helicopter pilot.
But both were proven false when it was announced that Nolan would adapt The Odyssey, written by Greek poet Homer about Odysseus, the Greek king who endures an epic journey back from the Trojan War.
The project is obviously packed with stars, including Matt Damon as Odysseus, Tom Holland as his son Telemachus, Anne Hathaway as his wife Penelope, and more. But now, Nolan has finally opened up about why he chose The Odyssey as his next project.
Christopher Nolan wanted The Odyssey to recapture the “mythological” work of Ray Harryhausen
In a lengthy look at the film in the latest issue of Empire Magazine, Christopher Nolan said that he wants The Odyssey to follow in the footsteps of movies he grew up with, like the ones animator Ray Harryhausen worked on.
“As a filmmaker, you’re looking for gaps in cinematic culture, things that haven’t been done before,” Nolan said.
“And what I saw is that all of this great mythological cinematic work that I had grown up with – Ray Harryhausen movies and other things – I’d never seen that done with the sort of weight and credibility that an A-budget and a big Hollywood, IMAX production could do.”
Harryhausen is of course known for his stop-motion effects on classic films like The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts, and 1981’s Clash of the Titans.
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During the 91-day shoot, Nolan shot over two million feet of film because he was determined to make it as real as possible, and a lot was filmed out in the ocean.
“I’ve been out on it for the last four months. We got the cast who play the crew of Odysseus’ ship out there on the real waves, in the real places. And yeah, it’s vast and terrifying and wonderful and benevolent, as the conditions shift.
“We really wanted to capture how hard those journeys would have been for people. And the leap of faith that was being made in an unmapped, uncharted world.”
Until the director’s next epic finally arrives on the big screen, check out Dexerto’s ranking of Christopher Nolan’s movies, as well as our list of the 50 best movies of all time.