{"id":545899,"date":"2026-07-17T11:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T11:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/545899\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T11:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T11:00:09","slug":"greatest-director-out-there-nolan-fans-fly-into-london-to-see-the-odyssey-at-bfi-imax-the-odyssey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/545899\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Greatest director out there\u2019: Nolan fans fly into London to see The Odyssey at BFI Imax | The Odyssey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Odysseus made his name by embarking on a perilous journey from Troy to Ithaca, plus a few unplanned diversions courtesy of the gods. But this is nothing on Christian Campbell, who last night travelled more than 4,000 miles to see the Greek king\u2019s epic fable on the big screen.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old film graduate, who aspires to be an editor, made the journey from Atlanta to London to watch Christopher Nolan\u2019s take on Homer\u2019s epic poem, The Odyssey.<\/p>\n

Like many people gathered in the BFI Imax in south London before the film\u2019s first midnight showing, he bought his ticket a year in advance<\/a>. \u201cI had originally planned on going to New York, but when the tickets dropped, they sold out immediately,\u201d he says. He was also out of luck nabbing a ticket in Georgia. \u201cI was like, the third best option is London.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only is it his first time in the British capital, it is the first time Campbell has left the US. While seeing The Odyssey<\/a> on Nolan\u2019s home turf was the initial reason behind coming to London, his aunt Donna joined him and they turned the trip into a holiday.<\/p>\n

BFI Imax, near Waterloo Bridge, is one of the few cinemas in the world that will show The Odyssey in Imax 1570 the highest-resolution film format in existence and the first feature film to be shot entirely on 1570 cameras.<\/p>\n

Friends Julian J\u00e4ger, Marco Garbely and Gilbert Oggier flew into London from Switzerland. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Each weighs 180kg and Nolan worked with Imax to develop a soundproofing \u201cblimp\u201d to make it quiet enough for him to record dialogue on the heavy-duty cameras for the first time. While this has certainly not hemmed the films\u2019s huge $250m (\u00a3186m) budget, it looks set to pay off. Box office predictions suggest The Odyssey could record $80m-$100m on its first weekend in North America alone.<\/p>\n

Campbell was eight when he watched his first (and favourite) Nolan film, The Dark Knight, despite it having a PG-13 rating. \u201cMy uncle played it for me and he would skip the bad parts,\u201d he says. He has watched every other film by the director and had the same response: \u201cDang, that was awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also embarking on an epic journey was Marco Garbely, who travelled from Switzerland with his two friends, landing in London<\/a> mere hours before rocking up to the BFI Imax wearing shirts commemorating their favourite director.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old, who works in healthcare, says he was a bit nervous before the review embargo broke on Wednesday because \u201cwe have such high standards of him\u201d. But his fears were allayed when the film debuted with a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (it has since fallen to a still mighty 96%). In a five-star review<\/a>, the Guardian called it a \u201cgod-tier\u201d breathtaking epic.<\/p>\n

He was also concerned that far-right criticism, including from Elon Musk, about Lupita Nyong\u2019o\u2019s casting as Helen could affect the reception of the film. \u201cIt\u2019s quite forced. It\u2019s a myth which was invented 1,000 years ago. We don\u2019t have proof of how Helen existed or what she should looked like,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Rachana Mettem is incorporating the midnight screening into a tour of the UK and Ireland. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Alongside Garbely is Julian J\u00e4ger, 30, who works in finance. He says Nolan had \u201cquite an impact on our childhood and how we understand cinema\u201d. He recalls watching Inception in the cinema aged 15. It remains his favourite Nolan film. \u201cIt\u2019s so interesting, it\u2019s not like a regular action movie,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

While Garbely considers 2023\u2019s Oppenheimer to be Nolan\u2019s \u201cbest work\u201d, he hopes \u201cit could be surpassed tonight\u201d. Either way, he can get a second opinion on Friday because the trio have tickets to watch the film two nights in a row.<\/p>\n

For Rachana Mettem, her visit to BFI Imax was \u201cbasically a pit stop\u201d between landing in London from Ireland and embarking on a trip to Edinburgh. She also bought her tickets a year in advance. The 26-year-old student remembers watching Ghajini, which was inspired by Nolan\u2019s breakout sophomore hit. \u201cI grew up thinking it was a Bollywood movie at first, but it turns out it\u2019s based on Memento,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

She wonders why Himesh Patel, who plays a pivotal role in the The Odyssey, has not had a more prominent part in the press tour. \u201cI feel like Hollywood has showcased white actors and made them the centre point rather than people of colour who have distinct roles within the film,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

While most people in the cinema opted against wearing a helmet, Walee Ahmed went all-in to get the true Odyssey experience. The 26-year-old data analyst says Nolan is \u201cprobably one of the greatest directors out there\u201d. He has seen Oppenheimer nine times. \u201cAs a cinematic experience, it\u2019s top notch and the soundtrack is one of my favourites. I listen to it every other day,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Walee Ahmed, a 26-year-old data, opts to wear a helmet to get the true Odyssey experience at the BFI Imax. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

He managed to see Nolan in person when he received the BFI fellowship, something his friend, Forhad Alom, would also love to experience. \u201cI\u2019m not much of a cinephile but when it comes Nolan, I don\u2019t play around,\u201d says the 29-year-old civil servant. \u201cThat\u2019s my Goat. I would be starstruck.\u201d<\/p>\n

He plans on seeing the film again on Friday night, though if he did want to part with this ticket, he could fetch a decent profit. Screenings at BFI Imax are sold out until early August, while tickets to some viewings are listed<\/a> on eBay for more than \u00a3500.<\/p>\n

With his helmet in hand, Ahmed entered the sold-out screening to join his fellow Nolan enthusiasts. As the clock approached midnight, the lobby, which was heaving moments ago, was silent. After a year-long wait for many, their cinematic odyssey was finally beginning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Odysseus made his name by embarking on a perilous journey from Troy to Ithaca, plus a few unplanned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-545899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}