{"id":299743,"date":"2025-11-22T14:07:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T14:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/299743\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T14:07:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T14:07:13","slug":"christopher-nolan-was-hired-as-troy-director-years-before-odyssey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/299743\/","title":{"rendered":"Christopher Nolan Was Hired as Troy Director Years Before ‘Odyssey’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tChristopher Nolan confirmed to Empire Magazine<\/a> (via World of Reel<\/a>) that Warner Bros. originally hired him to direct its swords-and-sandals epic \u201cTroy,\u201d more than two decades before Nolan would mount his adaptation of Homer\u2019s \u201cThe Odyssey<\/a>.\u201d The events depicted in the former movie factor into the latter, which is why the Oscar winner told the publication mounting his film version of \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d did not come out of nowhere despite some fans being surprised Nolan would want to tackle Homer\u2019s Greek epic. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was originally hired by Warner Bros. to direct \u2018Troy.\u2019 Wolfgang [Petersen] had developed it, and so when the studio decided not to proceed with his superhero movie [\u2018Batman Vs Superman\u2019], he wanted it back,\u201d Nolan said. \u201cAt the end of the day, it was a world that I was very interested to explore. So it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWolfgang Peterson was fresh off the box office hits \u201cAir Force One\u201d and \u201cThe Perfect Storm\u201d when he pivoted away from \u201cTroy\u201d and into the superhero space with his own take on \u201cBatman v Superman\u201d for Warner Bros. Nolan had successfully jumped from \u201cMemento\u201d into the Hollywood studio space by helming Warner Bros.\u2019 2002 thriller \u201cInsomnia.\u201d The studio wanted to keep Nolan in house with \u201cTroy.\u201d In an ironic twist of fate, Nolan told Empire that Warner Bros. took back \u201cTroy\u201d to give to Peterson and then offered Nolan \u201cBatman Begins\u201d as a \u201cconsolation prize.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tPeterson\u2019s \u201cTroy\u201d ended up starring Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom and Diane Kruger. The movie opened to mixed reviews in summer 2004 but earned nearly $500 million worldwide. Nolan\u2019s \u201cBatman Begins\u201d arrived the following summer and launched what would become one of Warner Bros.\u2019 most acclaimed and financially successful film trilogies. <\/p>\n

\n\tWith the upcoming \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d Nolan is finally getting to fulfill his dream of bringing the Trojan war to the big screen. The movie stars Matt Damon in the lead role of Odysseus. Tom Holland plays his son, Telemachus. The sprawling ensemble also includes Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong\u2019o, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron and Jon Bernthal.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAs a filmmaker, you\u2019re looking for gaps in cinematic culture, things that haven\u2019t been done before,\u201d Nolan also told \u00a0Empire magazine<\/a> about why he chose to turn Homer\u2019s \u201cOdyssey\u201d into a movie. \u201cAnd what I saw is that all of this great mythological cinematic work that I had grown up with \u2013 Ray Harryhausen movies and other things \u2013 I\u2019d never seen that done with the sort of weight and credibility that an A-budget and a big Hollywood, IMAX production could do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Odyssey\u201d is set for release on July 17, 2026, from Universal Pictures.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christopher Nolan confirmed to Empire Magazine (via World of Reel) that Warner Bros. originally hired him to direct…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,29185],"class_list":{"0":"post-299743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-the-odyssey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}