Well, it’s about time. Universal has unveiled the first trailer for “The Odyssey” — the much-anticipated film from Christopher Nolan, his epic follow-up to the Oscar-winning “Oppenheimer.” The film has been building ridiculous hype: it’s Nolan’s most expensive movie to date, shot entirely with IMAX cameras, and features an impressive ensemble cast.
What do you think? I don’t care about historical accuracy, and those costumes certainly are not historically accurate, and there’s certainly a chance Nolan is in over his head here with source material that’s been deemed for many years too dense to turn into a feature film, but the sheer ambition is what’s winning me over, for now.
Calling “The Odyssey” epic barely covers it. Translating Homer’s vast 8th-century BCE poem to the screen practically invites a runtime north of three hours. It also stands to be the boldest gamble of Nolan’s career.
While the film centers on Matt Damon’s portrayal of Odysseus, and his arduous journey home following the Trojan War, Nolan’s film has one of the most impressive casts in recent memory, including the likes of Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Charlize Theron, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Jon Bernthal and Mia Goth.
Nolan, of course, is the filmmaker behind “Memento,” “The Dark Knight,” “Inception,” “Interstellar,” and “Dunkirk,” a director who always swings for the fences and has barely missed, but “The Odyssey” represents an entirely different kind of challenge — one rooted less in scale or spectacle than in translating a foundational myth, long deemed “unfilmable,” into a coherent, emotionally gripping modern blockbuster.
The budget on “The Odyssey” is reportedly $250M (I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s more). The film used brand-new, state-of-the-art IMAX cameras, with cinematography by Nolan’s go-to DP, Hoyte Van Hoytema. Tickets for the 70mm IMAX showings actually went on sale this summer and sold out most of their showings (25,000+ tickets over 22 locations).
“The Odyssey” is set to hit theaters on July 17, 2026.
