{"id":807389,"date":"2026-07-18T03:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T03:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/807389\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T03:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T03:03:11","slug":"the-odyssey-christopher-nolans-imax-is-a-hollywood-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/807389\/","title":{"rendered":"The Odyssey: Christopher Nolan\u2019s IMAX is a Hollywood first"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Tom Holland first started shooting his scenes on The Odyssey, he thought he was doing a terrible job.<\/p>\n

Director Christopher Nolan kept yelling \u2018cut\u2019 and the Spider-Man star thought it was because he hated his performance. <\/p>\n

As it turned out, his acting was fine \u2013 it was just that Nolan\u2019s state-of-the-art IMAX cameras could only shoot for three minutes at a time before they had to be reloaded with film.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018Oh, thank god,\u2019\u201d Holland said in an interview with Fandango. \u201cI thought I was totally s****ing the bed in this scene.\u201d <\/p>\n

Holland\u2019s ignorance was understandable, though, since the star-studded, eagerly anticipated adaptation of Homer\u2019s ancient Greek tale marks the first time that a movie has been shot entirely for IMAX, fulfilling a long-held ambition for Nolan. <\/p>\n

Ever since the Oscar-winning director saw documentaries in the large-scale, high-definition format (which boasts up to 40 per cent more image than a standard wide-screen format) as a teenager, he\u2019d wondered what it would be like to shoot an action movie using it.<\/p>\n

And although he\u2019d used the technology for action scenes in his earlier films going all the way back to 2008\u2019s The Dark Knight, the size and, especially, the noise of the bulky cameras meant that using them to film dialogue was all but impossible.<\/p>\n

His Odyssey star Matt Damon, with whom Nolan had already worked on Oppenheimer and Interstellar, described the racket as being like \u201ca blender in your face\u201d, while Robert Pattinson, who plays the villainous Antinous in the historical epic says \u201cit feels like you\u2019re shooting the movie with an SUV\u201d. <\/p>\n

To achieve his dream \u2013 Nolan has always been a huge enthusiast and advocate for the big-screen theatre experience \u2013 the director challenged IMAX to come up with new, quieter cameras as well at refining a muffling system known as \u201cthe Blimp\u201d that they\u2019d experimented with on his mind-bending 2021 sci-fi action movie Tenet. <\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018I know you guys are building new cameras. If you can find a way to encase them so that I can record sound with them, we are going to commit to making the entire new film with IMAX cameras\u2019,\u201d said Nolan. \u201cAnd they stepped up to that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Even so, the new cameras came with a new set of challenges. They were so heavy that it took up to six people to lug them up cliffs, along beaches and on boats to film the thrilling action sequences. They were also so big that the film crew had to invent an elaborate system with mirrors so the actors could actually see each other while filming their intimate and emotional dialogue scenes. <\/p>\n

Holland, who plays the title character\u2019s son Telemachus, says it almost took him back to square one as an actor and forced him to adopt a much more subtle style because he felt like there was \u201cnowhere to hide\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to kind of throw out techniques you\u2019ve learned with a digital camera or a smaller camera and learn how to dance with the camera,\u201d Holland said.<\/p>\n

The level of clarity and detail the cameras capture was threw up problems for the costume, make-up and set design departments, too \u2013 armour and clothing couldn\u2019t be synthetically reproduced and had to be aged by hand, and any imperfections would be amplified by the IMAX screens that can be seven-stories tall.<\/p>\n

All the vision and hard work paid off: when it opened it cinemas these week, The Odyssey was widely hailed as a masterpiece and it\u2019s also tipped to reach the US$1 billion mark set by Nolan\u2019s last film, Oppenheimer. But for all that effort into the trailblazing tech there are precious few screens that will actually be able to show The Odyssey in IMAX 70mm, which is the director\u2019s gold standard of the six formats in which it will be released. (You can see what each one looks like on the movie\u2019s website<\/a>.) There are only 41 such screens around the world \u2013 and the only one in Australia is located in Melbourne. So why go to all that trouble, and what does it actually mean for audiences?<\/p>\n

News Corp film critic Leigh Paatsch, who gave The Odyssey a glowing four-and-a-half star review, said that in addition to Nolan\u2019s stunning artistic achievement, the IMAX 70mm and other prestige release formats such as the smaller IMAX screens in Melbourne, Sydney and the Gold Coast and 70mm screenings (available at Melbourne\u2019s Astor, Rivoli and Sun theatres, Sydney\u2019s Randwick Ritz and Hayden Orpheum and Brisbane\u2019s Palace James St) helped mark the movie as event cinema and gave audiences more choice. <\/p>\n

Part of the way back for a cinema industry ravaged by the Covid lockdowns and the rise of streaming has been to find ways to enhance the movie-going experience. There is a growing audience of movie fans who are willing to pay more money (an IMAX ticket can be north of $40, more for premium seats) to see their favourite movies on the biggest and best screens available, with the best sound and a more immersive experience, Paatsch said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCinema is under threat as a storytelling and entertainment format in general,\u201d Paatsch said. \u201cThe fundamental traditions of cinema is presenting a spectacle and an entertainment experience you can\u2019t get on your phone and your tablet and your lounge room. [So] you really do have to keep chasing the most prominent and\/or inspiring presentation format you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Audiences are responding, too. Jeremy Fee, General Manager of IMAX Melbourne, said that being the only option in Australia to see The Odyssey in Nolan\u2019s preferred format has seen movie buffs making special trips from interstate and overseas. Presales for the movie have already surpassed Oppenheimer (the previous record holder) since they went on sale a year ago, and The Odyssey is almost certain to become its most successful release ever. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had reports of people coming from really all over the globe,\u201d Fee said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got someone coming from Germany, from Turkey, a lot of people from India, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, a lot of interstate visitors as well. We have a lot of loyal customers who come back for really every IMAX 70mm screening we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with the rising popularity of the prestige formats, the vast majority of audiences will see The Odyssey on smaller, more traditionally-shaped screens at standard and premium large format multiplexes such as Hoyts, Village and Event Cinemas around the country due to price and distance. And that\u2019s just fine, said Paatsch, although he recommended that the bigger screen, the better. In the end, it\u2019s about the film rather than the format. <\/p>\n

\u201cMore than anything else, the fact that we have a $300 million plus film adapted and based on one of the oldest pieces of storytelling known to man is almost a miracle in itself, that it\u2019s the film that everybody wants to see,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if a viewer is totally settling for second best if they merely just see it on a garden-variety large screen in the cinema. <\/p>\n

\u201cI still put a premium on what it is we are actually watching rather than the prism through how we are watching it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And if The Odyssey is the success that the pundits are predicting, expect more to follow the IMAX path that Nolan has blazed. After seeking advice from Nolan, Ryan Coogler shot about a quarter of his 2025 hit horror movie Sinners using IMAX technology and this year\u2019s deep space adventure Project Hail Mary filmed about 75 per cent in the IMAX ratio. Denis Villeneuve has also used a blend of film and digital cameras for large parts of the coming Dune: Part 3 with IMAX in mind. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think absolutely we\u2019re going to see people clamouring to get this filming equipment and to try and use it as much as possible,\u201d said Fee. \u201cCertain films really lend themselves to that IMAX giant screen environment. So if you\u2019re creating a film that needs to be shown on the biggest screen possible, I think we\u2019ll see a lot of people trying to use that.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Tom Holland first started shooting his scenes on The Odyssey, he thought he was doing a terrible…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[381472,381457,381439,381474,381467,381443,381368,381459,381400,381421,381375,381446,381390,381466,381475,381463,96448,381410,381447,381397,381370,381424,381391,381434,381419,381367,381444,381473,381438,381464,381381,381420,381465,381372,381082,376637,381448,113536,381374,381452,381402,381422,381383,381369,376870,381409,13185,381396,64,172001,63,27929,110963,651,447,32092,21876,129268,47144,65992,381379,51130,14827,381414,13958,381373,379391,381377,134,381437,293737,41243,1635,1689,381426,287311,47019,8852,56754,381453,381455,381406,381378,381395,381393,381394,381371,37313,23303,177950,381412,381440,381403,381462,10413,381449,647,96602,381470,323950,3127,381427,381435,153654,381418,381436,165587,381441,381407,6622,381415,191245,381380,381458,13678,381423,381456,52397,381411,2708,670,304659,381399,381388,381401,381398,376957,381428,381442,381405,381450,381460,381384,376549,46675,381389,381392,381432,381454,381469,381451,381408,381100,30335,381310,381430,381425,377619,381461,377130,381417,381385,381376,381404,381445,381431,381471,381387,381382,381096,214758,54798,381416,381468,381413,381433,34362,381429,93597,381386,380410,121310],"class_list":["post-807389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-s-ancient-greek-tale","tag-s-astor","tag-s-gold-standard","tag-s-ignorance","tag-s-last-film","tag-s-new-epic","tag-s-palace-james-st","tag-s-randwick-ritz","tag-s-son-telemachus","tag-s-state-of-the-art-imax-cameras","tag-s-stunning-artistic-achievement","tag-s-the-dark-knight","tag-s-the-odyssey","tag-s-website","tag-the-blimp","tag-381463","tag-96448","tag-70mm-screenings","tag-a-blender","tag-a-cinema-industry","tag-a-digital-camera","tag-a-glowing-four-and-a-half-star-review","tag-a-huge-enthusiast-and-advocate","tag-a-huge-reason","tag-a-long-held-ambition","tag-a-masterpiece","tag-a-movie","tag-a-much-more-subtle-style","tag-a-muffling-system","tag-a-new-set","tag-a-smaller-camera","tag-a-standard-wide-screen-format","tag-a-teenager","tag-a-terrible-job","tag-a-time","tag-a-way","tag-action-scenes","tag-addition","tag-all-that-effort","tag-all-that-trouble","tag-all-the-way","tag-an-action-movie","tag-an-actor","tag-an-elaborate-system","tag-an-interview","tag-an-suv","tag-anne-hathaway","tag-any-imperfections","tag-au","tag-audiences","tag-australia","tag-beaches","tag-boats","tag-brisbane","tag-celebrities","tag-cent","tag-challenges","tag-christopher-nolan","tag-cinema","tag-cinemas","tag-clarity-and-detail","tag-cliffs","tag-cut","tag-director-christopher-nolan","tag-documentaries","tag-each-one","tag-each-other","tag-eagerly-anticipated-adaptation","tag-entertainment","tag-event-cinema","tag-extreme-lengths","tag-fandango","tag-fans","tag-film","tag-film-dialogue","tag-god","tag-growing","tag-hand","tag-hard-work","tag-hayden-orpheum","tag-high-definition-format","tag-his-acting","tag-his-dream","tag-his-earlier-films","tag-his-mind-bending-2021-sci-fi-action-movie-tenet","tag-his-performance","tag-his-scenes","tag-holland","tag-homer","tag-imax","tag-imax-70mm","tag-imax-cameras","tag-impossible-his","tag-it-and","tag-level","tag-make-up-and-set-design-departments","tag-melbourne","tag-mirrors","tag-more-choice","tag-more-image","tag-new","tag-new-cameras","tag-news-corp-film-critic-leigh-paatsch","tag-nolan","tag-odyssey-star-matt-damon","tag-only-41-such-screens","tag-oppenheimer","tag-oppenheimer-and-interstellar","tag-other-prestige-release-formats","tag-part","tag-precious-few-screens","tag-problems","tag-quieter-cameras","tag-rivoli-and-sun-theatres","tag-robert-pattinson","tag-seven-stories","tag-six-people","tag-sound","tag-square-one","tag-streaming","tag-sydney","tag-techniques","tag-the-actors","tag-the-bed","tag-the-big-screen-theatre-experience","tag-the-bulky-cameras","tag-the-camera","tag-the-cameras-capture","tag-the-costume","tag-the-covid-lockdowns","tag-the-director","tag-the-entire-new-film","tag-the-film-crew","tag-the-first-time","tag-the-gold-coast","tag-the-historical-epic","tag-the-imax-70mm","tag-the-imax-screens","tag-the-large-scale","tag-the-movie","tag-the-movie-going-experience","tag-the-new-cameras","tag-the-noise","tag-the-odyssey","tag-the-only-one","tag-the-oscar-winning-director","tag-the-racket","tag-the-rise","tag-the-six-formats","tag-the-size","tag-the-smaller-imax-screens","tag-the-spider-man-star","tag-the-star-studded","tag-the-technology","tag-the-thrilling-action-sequences","tag-the-title-character","tag-the-trailblazing-tech","tag-the-us1-billion-mark","tag-the-villainous-antinous","tag-the-vision","tag-the-way","tag-the-world","tag-their-intimate-and-emotional-dialogue-scenes","tag-these-week","tag-this-scene","tag-three-minutes","tag-tom-holland","tag-too-armour-and-clothing","tag-ways","tag-you-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