Christopher Nolan is pushing the limits of IMAX once again. Following the massive success of “Oppenheimer,” the director is set to shoot his next project, “The Odyssey,” entirely with IMAX cameras—a first for any commercial feature film.
Nolan, long known for his love affair with the large-format medium—having used it extensively on “Interstellar,” “Dunkirk,” “Tenet,” “The Dark Knight trilogy,” and “Oppenheimer” —has finally cracked the technical barrier that previously made full-length IMAX shooting unfeasible. The famously cumbersome, noisy cameras weren’t built for the speed or flexibility of modern production. Until now.
Speaking Thursday at IMAX’s annual Cannes press lunch, CEO Rich Gelfond revealed that Nolan directly challenged the company after “Oppenheimer” grossed over $190M on IMAX screens alone. “Chris called me up and said, ‘If you can figure out how to solve the problems, we’ll make [The Odyssey] 100 percent in IMAX.’ And that’s what we’re doing,” Gelfond said. “He forced us to rethink that side of our business—our film recorders, our film cameras.”
The result: a new generation of IMAX film cameras that are 30 percent quieter and significantly lighter, with upgraded film scanning and processing systems allowing near-instant turnaround for dailies. In other words: no more waiting days to see footage, and possibly no more inaudible dialogue either.
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