Christopher Nolan directed The Odyssey to escape from Oppenheimer 'despair'
The Odyssey director Christopher Nolan came up with the idea for his epic new blockbuster as he tried to move on from the sense of "despair" he felt making 2023 flick Oppenheimer.
Christopher Nolan made The Odyssey to try and escape from the "despair" he felt after directing Oppenheimer.
The 55-year-old filmmaker has helmed the historical epic - which stars Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway and Tom Holland - and explained that he decided to adapt Homer's ancient Greek tale after covering the "disturbing" topic of nuclear war in the 2023 flick.
Nolan told USA Today: "Coming out of Oppenheimer, I had a funny combination of despair and optimism.
"That film was almost a horror film for me. It was a very disturbing subject to live with for a couple of years: thinking non-stop about nuclear war and what humans bring to the table. I was quite glad to move out of that. But when you see The Odyssey, you start to realise that I didn't quite manage to escape it."
Nolan also revealed how he drew from his previous blockbusters in making The Odyssey and explained that he was surprised by the similarities the flick shares with his Dark Knight trilogy that featured Christian Bale as Batman.
The auteur said: "It has to do with creating an icon that is relatable and yet larger than life. Those three films were a continual experiment in trying to be human, and coming to The Odyssey, it's that same balance. On the surface, I didn't think there'd be much of a relationship, but what I learned doing the Dark Knight films really helped with this."
Nolan also revealed how Martin Scorsese's controversial 1988 film The Last Temptation of Christ served as a form of inspiration for The Odyssey.
The Interstellar filmmaker said: "We screened a few different films in pre-production, and that one in particular we got a print of.
"It's a stunning movie and a shocking film. There were technical things that Scorsese was doing that were quite inspiring, but more than that, the figure of Jesus and what he does with him was very, very challenging to the audience. That was quite inspiring from the point of view of Odysseus: You want to be true to all the difficulties of the character, and that's what Temptation is."
The Odyssey is the first movie to be shot entirely using IMAX's 70 mm cameras and Nolan hopes that the movie inspires fellow filmmakers such as Sinners helmer Ryan Coogler to follow suit.
He said: "When you meet with theatre owners and you talk to them − as I do a lot − there's a very positive energy right now around really trying to give the audience an experience they can't get at home.
"I love going to see films that way. Now I want to see someone like Ryan shoot an entire film in IMAX. That's the fun! We’ve shown it's possible − now I want to see somebody else's film done that way."
