Christopher Nolan Says He Was “Originally Hired” to Direct ‘Troy’

Here’s an interesting tidbit from that Christopher Nolan cover story in the latest issue of Empire Magazine.

In an interview, Nolan reveals that he had been hired by Warner Bros. to direct “Troy,” which was supposed to be his next film after 2002’s “Insomnia,” but after Wolfgang Petersen’s “Batman vs Superman” movie got canned by WB, the German filmmaker wanted “Troy” back, which he had originally developed:

I was originally hired by Warner Bros. to direct Troy. Wolfgang [Petersen] had developed it, and so when the studio decided not to proceed with his superhero movie [‘Batman Vs Superman’], he wanted it back.

How ironic that the film Nolan would go on to direct instead was his own Batman movie, 2005’s “Batman Begins.” Writer David Goyer recently mentioned that Warner Bros. gave Nolan that project as a “consolation prize.” Meanwhile, Petersen (“Das Boot”) was never quite the same after the critical drubbing of “Troy,” which still earned over $490M worldwide. He went on to direct just one more film, “Poseidon,” before essentially exiting Hollywood.

All this to say, Nolan has had “The Odyssey,” which shares the same mythological world and timeline as Troy’s, in the back of his mind for a few decades now, and if anything, it’s only enhanced his desire to tackle this world:

At the end of the day, it was a world that I was very interested to explore. So it’s been at the back of my mind for a very long time. Certain images, particularly. How I wanted to handle the Trojan horse, things like that.

Not a fan of “Troy,” although I’ve been told the director’s cut is an improvement. Regardless, I don’t remember much about the theatrical cut I saw 20 years ago. It came just a few years after “Gladiator,” when sword-and-sandal epics were making a small comeback. Brad Pitt got jacked for the role, but the film itself was, from what I can remember, fairly middling, overlong, and more style than substance.

Imagine a timeline where Nolan actually got to direct “Troy,” and Petersen got to make “Batman vs Superman.” We would have probably not gotten “The Dark Knight,” let alone “Inception,” “Interstellar” and “Oppenheimer.” Something tells me Nolan is very happy now that Petersen got him fired from “Troy.”

“The Odyssey” is set to hit theaters on July 17, 2026 via Universal Pictures.