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The Odyssey
stunt performer James Newman reveals Christopher Nolan’s epic, globe-trotting approach to filming his upcoming movie. After finding critical and commercial success with Oppenheimer (2023), Nolan has next set his sights on an adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey, an ancient story that chronicles Odysseus’ years-long journey home after the Trojan War. Matt Damon takes on the lead role of Odysseus in the film, with a stacked supporting cast that includes Tom Holland, Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, and Lupita Nyong’o, among others. Filming on The Odyssey got underway in February, with the production remaining shrouded in mystery.
During a recent appearance on the Action for Everyone podcast, Newman discusses his time working on The Odyssey, revealing that Nolan took a unique approach to filming, specifically seeking out locations that were untouched by Hollywood. This sometimes led to fairly epic journeys for the cast and crew to actually get to remote filming locations. Filming was such a massive undertaking that Newman declares no movie will be shot like The Odyssey again. Check out his full comment below:
“They’re never going to make a movie like this again. I think it’s going to be an epic of all epics. It’s going to be Nolan at his best. No holds barred. He definitely fights a battle that a lot of people aren’t fighting. The coordinator came to us with scout pictures of locations, and it’s just all over Europe because Odysseus’ journey is crazy, it’s like 10 years long.
“They found locations and Nolan would go like, ‘Okay, this cave, has anyone ever filmed here before?’ And the local guy is like, ‘No.’ [Nolan] is like, ‘Okay, great, we’re going to film here.’ This like untouched place. He wants to be the first person there to do it, he wants to feel like no one has ever touched ground here. And every location is a hike. There’s a castle, I think it’s Odysseus’ home, but it’s up on a hill and it’s like a two kilometer hike to get up there.”
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“I had the opportunity to make some action with a talented group of people for the film and also had the opportunity to train Matt Damon and Tom Holland for the film. All the rumors about Tom being physically able are so true. He can literally do anything. He should get every physical role possible.”
Newman then talks more specifically about his time training stars Damon and Holland, and how the action was choreographed for the two stars. The stunt performer explains that all the action was deeply rooted in character, with Damon’s Odysseus featuring a unique fighting style:
“Matt definitely wanted to be more efficient because that’s the character. Odysseus, if anyone is familiar with that story, Odysseus is really the only war scene character along that journey. The guys he has with him have fought with him but Odysseus himself is like, ‘I’ve lived and breathed battle,’ and so that makes him more smart, and that’s why he’s so good. Matt definitely understood that and then we were trying to play that up as well. So he isn’t going to do flashy things.
“With Tom, he’s obviously more athletic and he’s younger so he’s going to almost be a younger version of Odysseus.”
More to come…
Source: Action For Everyone