Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is making its world premiere this week. The film opens in theaters nationwide on Friday, but if you haven’t gotten a ticket yet, it may be difficult to snag one.
The film is making cinematic history, standing as the first feature film to be shot entirely with IMAX film cameras.
While numerous local theaters offer IMAX screenings, only the Cinemark in Dallas has 70mm film capabilities. The only other movie theater in Texas with equal capabilities is the AMC Rivercenter 11 in San Antonio. The full list of theaters can be found on IMAX.com.
A massive Trojan horse was installed in New York City ahead of the film’s premiere on Tuesday. The 40-foot, 8,000-pound replica of the Trojan horse from ‘The Odyssey’ was installed outside AMC Lincoln Square.
The film used 2.1 million feet of IMAX film. According to the production, that’s longer than the distance from Toronto to New York.
Zendaya explained how her husband, Tom Holland, told her she was cast in “The Odyssey” and why getting a part was a dream come true for her.
“By shooting on IMAX 70mm film, you’re really letting the screen disappear,” Nolan said. “You’re getting a feeling of 3D without the glasses. You’ve got a huge screen, and you’re filling the peripheral vision of the audience. You’re immersing them in the world of the film.”
IMAX cameras can only shoot for 3 minutes continuously before it needs to be reloaded. Instead of being a hindrance, though, it kept everyone hyper-focused.
Jon Bernthal dishes on the many projects he has coming up this year, including the best part about acting on stage in the Broadway adaptation of “Dog Day Afternoon,” co-writing special episodes for “The Bear” and “The Punisher,” and starring alongside Tom Holland in the biggest blockbusters of the summer “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey.”
“That’s an expensive camera. You got two and a half minutes with each roll of film, so you gotta get it in and keep it moving,” said Lupita Nyong’o. “There’s a different vibration on a Chris Nolan set. Everyone is present, everyone is ready, alert, and doing their bit to keep the train on the tracks.”
The camera, plus the noise-reducing muffler they dubbed “the blimp” that encased it, weighs approximately 300 pounds.
Nolan’s favorite exhibition format is also the rarest, and some of the most popular locations in New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas’ Cinemark are virtually sold out for weeks.
“The sharpness and the clarity and the depth of the image is unparalleled,” Nolan said.
On a technical level, the IMAX film resolution is almost 10 times more than a 35mm projector, and each frame has some 18,000 pixels of resolution versus a home HD screen that has 1,920 pixels. On the biggest presentations, IMAX 1.43:1 (the massive square screen), the screen essentially disappears for the audience. For other formats like 35mm, the top and the bottom get cropped.
The film is also showing in other formats at movie theaters across DFW, including Alamo Drafthouse, AMC, Angelika, B&B, Cinemark, Cinepolis, Galaxy, Regal, and Studio Movie Grill.
IMAX 70mm film was also an essential part of the movie Sinners’ theatrical run; Sinners ended up nominated for a record 16 awards, including Best Picture at the 98th Academy Awards.
“The Odyssey” is a Universal production, part of NBC Universal, the parent company of NBC DFW and Telemundo 39.