{"id":389053,"date":"2026-07-07T11:01:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T11:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/389053\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T11:01:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T11:01:37","slug":"christopher-nolan-explains-how-he-made-the-odyssey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/389053\/","title":{"rendered":"Christopher Nolan explains how he made \u2018The Odyssey\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Best known as the dream factory, Hollywood also echoes a certain chocolate factory that offers all-access golden tickets to fortunate boys and girls. Filmmakers who\u2019ve had unforeseen success don\u2019t get chocolate \u2014 they get a golden ticket to direct a passion project the next time around. Just ask Christopher Nolan.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne hundred percent,\u201d Nolan says when asked if he\u2019s experienced the phenomenon. \u201cEvery now and again, if you\u2019re really lucky and something really clicks, if your work catches a wave, that happens. After \u2018The Dark Knight\u2019 we were able to do \u2018Inception\u2019 and after \u2018Oppenheimer\u2019<\/a> was such a success, far beyond what we hoped for, we had the opportunity to do \u2018The Odyssey.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

An epic poem thousands of years old attributed to Homer, \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d is not just any passion project. In taking on the story of Trojan War veteran Odysseus (Matt Damon) and his fraught 20-year journey to return to his besieged wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), and his son Telamachus (Tom Holland) and rescue them from voracious suitors like Antinous (Robert Pattinson), Nolan has challenged himself with one of the oldest, most archetypal stories known to man.<\/p>\n

Yet until now there has not been a major film adaptation, which was part of the attraction.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a filmmaker, you are looking for a gap in the culture and this felt like an important one,\u201d he says, sipping on a mug of the excellent Earl Grey tea (\u201cI\u2019ve run on it for 25 years\u201d) that is his constant companion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat world felt like it hadn\u2019t been addressed. Ray Harryhausen<\/a> did it working on a shoestring, but the opportunity to take this on \u2014 on a big scale \u2014 was there, and it hadn\u2019t been there before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Soldiers <\/p>\n

A scene from the movie \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d directed by Christopher Nolan.<\/p>\n

(Melinda Sue Gordon \/ Universal Pictures)<\/p>\n

When Nolan says big scale, he is not kidding. His effortlessly epic, formidably impressive \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d which opens Friday, clocks in at 2 hours, 53 minutes, which in the Imax film version Nolan prefers comes out to approximately 11 miles of celluloid. The budget has been estimated at $250 million and the film was shot over 91 days, nine days under schedule.<\/p>\n

Yet when Nolan, who also wrote the screenplay (\u201cHomer was the co-writer, a very good co-writer,\u201d he jokes), talks about the film, his focus is not on the impressive size but on the intimacy he was seeking. \u201cI wanted to tell it in a fresh and modern way, to make it as accessible for a modern audience as it was for Homer\u2019s,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Sitting in a quiet, sun-lit conference room in the Hollywood offices of his Syncopy production company, making sure that his guest\u2019s mug is always topped off, Nolan says his familiarity with the Odyssey story dates back to early childhood. \u201cBut coming to the text again now, you have a slightly different perspective. It reads differently as a middle-aged man. It\u2019s more about love and loss, a middle-aged love story.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than that, Nolan realized, \u201cI\u2019ve been telling this story in all my films for years. It\u2019s a family story, a love story, a revenge story, a war story, a coming-of-age story. It\u2019s a very strong foundational text for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nolan got close to \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d when he was almost chosen to direct 2004\u2019s Brad Pitt-starring \u201cTroy,\u201d<\/a> based on Homer\u2019s earlier \u201cThe Iliad.\u201d While imagining scenarios, he came up with an arresting image for the Trojan horse, \u201clisting over in the sand\u201d in a way that intentionally echoes the Statue of Liberty in \u201cPlanet of the Apes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt stuck with me,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a powerful image I really wanted to film\u201d and when the time came to do \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d in it went.<\/p>\n

\"Soldiers <\/p>\n

Soldiers find the Trojan horse in the movie \u201cThe Odyssey.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Melinda Sue Gordon \/ Universal Pictures)<\/p>\n

Intent on finding \u201clanguage that has emotional not intellectual meaning to people,\u201d Nolan opted to use colloquial, contemporary dialogue when constructing his script rather than artificially elevated speech. \u201cI was maybe being na\u00efve, it might bite me on the ass, but I wanted an earthy narrative. To me it was a no-brainer.\u201d<\/p>\n

For similar reasons, \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d is very much a star-laden production, including in smaller roles Jon Bernthal<\/a> as Sparta\u2019s King Menelaus, Lupita Nyong\u2019o<\/a> as Helen of Troy and Zendaya<\/a> as the goddess Athena. \u201cThese are mythological figures, iconic in some ways,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted to cast it big, get the finest bunch of actors,\u201d because their familiar faces would help a modern audience feel at home in an ancient story.<\/p>\n

Also a no-brainer for Nolan was his choice of Matt Damon, who\u2019d had a key role in \u201cInterstellar\u201d and was hard-nosed master builder Gen. Leslie Groves in \u201cOppenheimer,\u201d to play Odysseus. Though Nolan avoids writing with an actor in mind (\u201cIt\u2019s limiting,\u201d he says), once he started thinking about who could take it on, Damon came immediately to mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d worked with Matt twice before and he has such a great connection to the audience, he draws them in,\u201d Nolan explains. \u201cFor this very complex character, you need an actor who disappears into parts, who is very open to the audience. You want the audience to go with him through his mistakes \u2014 and he makes a lot of mistakes. Matt was everyman for \u2018The Martian,\u2019 a kind of superhero for the Jason Bourne films, and Odysseus is part everyman, part superhero.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Matt Damon as Odysseus and Zendaya as Athena in the movie \u201cThe Odyssey.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Melinda Sue Gordon \/ Universal Pictures)<\/p>\n

Another factor in Damon\u2019s favor, his director explains, is \u201cthough he\u2019s one of the most proficient and accomplished of actors, he has no movie-star baggage,\u201d something especially important in a physically taxing production that was shot in six countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were going to really challenging locations, doing a lot of boat work, and he helped to lead that process. The rest of the cast, a cadre of guys who worked their asses off rowing, was looking to him and everyone saw what he was doing for the film. Without Matt, we would have been better off doing it on a sound stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other actor whose presence deeply impacted the production, Nolan reports, is Samantha Morton<\/a>, mesmerizing as Circe, the goddess who changes Odysseus\u2019 men into swine. \u201cThis was a massive film and she is someone who comes in and changes the dynamic,\u201d he says. \u201cIn some weird way, the film lived or died over that character. She was the fulcrum.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always admired Samantha\u2019s work, she brings so much depth of thinking about her role, there are no limitations on her performance,\u201d he says. The director worked the film\u2019s schedule around her availability and didn\u2019t regret it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter one of her takes, the crew gave her a great round of applause,\u201d he recalls. I was talking with Emma [Thomas, Nolan\u2019s producing partner and wife] afterwards and she remembered that the last time that had happened was with Heath Ledger on \u2018The Dark Knight.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a family story, a love story, a revenge story, a war story, a coming-of-age story,\u201d says Nolan of Homer\u2019s epic poem, long an obsession of his.<\/p>\n

(Ian Spanier \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

Some stars like John Leguizamo as Odysseus\u2019 loyal servant Eumaeus are so unrecognizable in the film that when Nolan ran into the actor in New York during the editing process he didn\u2019t know it was him \u201ceven though I\u2019d been looking at his footage for days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others, like Charlize Theron, are immediately familiar but do some of their best work. Theron plays the nymph Calypso, who keeps Odysseus enchanted on her island for seven years. The Calypso role is much expanded from the original story and Theron makes the most of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew she would bring depth and credibility and she put her heart and soul into her performance,\u201d Nolan says. \u201cWhat she and Matt had on screen was very special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though famous for his love of real-world filmmaking, for shooting on location and doing effects in camera, not in post-production, Nolan likes to point out that his films have won three visual effects Oscars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThough traditionally special effects deal with what\u2019s done on the set and visual effects are what\u2019s done afterwards, I have the heads of those departments work together throughout the shoot, even during the design process,\u201d he says. \u201cMy responsibility is to shoot as much in the camera as I can, to give the audience a reason to believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes, like Nolan\u2019s first venture into creatures with the six-headed Scylla, it\u2019s mostly a visual effects situation. \u201cI was very inspired by Guillermo del Toro,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat I learned from him is that a monster is not a monster. You have to approach them the way you approach any other character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another creature, Polyphemus, the enormous one-eyed Cyclops played by Bill Irwin, benefited from Nolan\u2019s kind of synergy, starting with the famous Goya painting of Saturn eating his children. \u201cThat was very much the inspiration,\u201d Nolan remembers. \u201cWe had it up on the wall. Whenever we brought in a new technology that was the first thing we showed them.\u201d<\/p>\n

To create a flesh-and-blood Cyclops on screen, Nolan and his team used \u201cpuppetry, animatronics, robotics, but Bill was on the movie for a month. In addition to being a great actor, he\u2019s a mime, a clown, he knows how to use his physicality. He was the essence of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most purely physical effect in the film is the vessel Odysseus and his crew use in their ill-fated attempt to get home as soon as possible. An authentic Viking ship called the Draken that Nolan\u2019s team found in Norway fit the bill exactly.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Matt Damon, with bow, in the movie \u201cThe Odyssey.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Melinda Sue Gordon \/ Universal Pictures)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed something wooden-hulled, built with ancient technology that could be out there in open ocean water, in giant swells, and the Draken has crossed the Atlantic,\u201d Nolan explains. \u201cWe think of the Mediterranean as it is in summer holiday calm, but I\u2019m here to tell you it\u2019s not like that the rest of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the Draken set sail in the Mediterranean, the North Sea off Scotland, waters off Iceland and other locations Nolan reports, \u201cwe shot like it was a documentary. The actors learned how to sail and how to row and the boat\u2019s 26-man crew were dressed as extras and incorporated into the movie. We were months on that boat, it became a character in the movie, we figured out things we\u2019d never have known the answer to if we were on a sound stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding another degree of difficulty to the water scenes \u2014 and everything else \u2014 was Nolan\u2019s decision, working with frequent cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema<\/a>, to have \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d be the first feature shot entirely on Imax. \u201cI had done action before on Imax, but this was really about performance, about intimate scenes,\u201d he says. \u201cI was so struck on \u2018Oppenheimer\u2019 by what Imax could do for the human face, it seemed like it bore a hole into Cillian Murphy\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been wanting to do an Imax feature since I was 16 and went to the Omnimax Theatre at Chicago\u2019s Museum of Science and Industry,\u201d Nolan remembers. \u201cAs a kid, it really blew my mind. All I could think about as I watched those science documentaries was: What if you did a dramatic film that way?\u201d<\/p>\n

The difficulty, as Nolan discovered, was that the large 70mm Imax camera was so noisy that intimate dialogue scenes were impossible. But considering \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d and knowing that new tools would be required, Nolan contacted David and Patricia Keighley, his go-to people at Imax, and asked for their help.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Christopher Nolan, left, with cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema on the set of \u201cThe Odyssey.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Melinda Sue Gordon \/ Universal Pictures)<\/p>\n

The resulting camera, named the Keighley, features a newly designed camera-encasing blimp that reduced the noise to what Nolan calls \u201ca gentle purr.\u201d Still a problem was the camera\u2019s smaller-than-usual three-minute film magazine, which meant changing magazines in the middle of intense dramatic scenes, a situation Nolan had to plan for.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to reload super fast and be super focused,\u201d he explains. The director and his team came up with a system where, rather than take a break at each changeover, \u201ceveryone stayed in the moment,\u201d silent and unmoving. When the system worked for an eight-page emotional scene between Odysseus and Penelope shot in Los Angeles before location work, Nolan was satisfied all would be OK.<\/p>\n

Its high level of on-screen excitement notwithstanding, \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d has more on its mind than derring-do. Nolan emphasizes that he felt \u201ca responsibility to have the appropriate tone, to have a sense of consequences,\u201d which is why the film emphasizes the ancient world\u2019s concept of xenia, otherwise known as Zeus\u2019 law.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the golden rule, the idea that you treat people the way you want to be treated,\u201d Nolan explains. \u201cPartly it\u2019s because a humble person may be a god in disguise, but it also allows society to function. People need to travel, to trade, and everyone is at the mercy of strangers.\u201d<\/p>\n

When xenia is violated, as it sometimes is in \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d \u201cits abuse has terrible consequences. There is a price to be paid for vengeance and violence is the most straightforward expression of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, when all is said and done, Nolan emphasizes that \u201cThe Odyssey\u2019s\u201d universe \u201ccan seem alien, like another world, until it\u2019s not. The modern world frighteningly reminds you that these things don\u2019t change.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he talks about how his film has both stayed true to its ancient source and speaks to today, Nolan is simultaneously enthused and sure of himself in a selfless way. It\u2019s easy to see why when this filmmaker gets a golden ticket, the astonishing is only a heartbeat away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Best known as the dream factory, Hollywood also echoes a certain chocolate factory that offers all-access golden tickets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1872,156827,156829,144998,156828,1924,10664,48,52,51,47,50,49,129722,156825,156826,99368,65633,156830,3044,72],"class_list":["post-389053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-actor","tag-bill-irwin","tag-charlize-theron","tag-christopher-nolan","tag-draken","tag-film","tag-homer","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-matt-damon","tag-modern-audience","tag-modern-way","tag-odysseus","tag-odyssey","tag-star-laden-production","tag-story","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}