Christopher Nolan’s youthful brother, producer and screenwriter Jonathan Nolan, has shared his sincere overview of the director’s upcoming adaptation of The Odyssey. Based mostly on Homer’s historical Greek mythological epic, Nolan’s The Odyssey follows Matt Damon’s Odysseus as he and his males undertake the arduous, decade-long journey dwelling to Ithaca after combating within the equally lengthy Trojan Warfare.
Given the supply materials, which incorporates monsters, gods, and mystical creatures in abundance, The Odyssey is certain to be Nolan’s most fantastical and sprawling work but. It is also the primary movie to be shot solely on IMAX cameras, marking a brand new period of filmmaking. When tickets for IMAX showings went on sale final 12 months, they offered out virtually instantly.
Now, as hype builds for the film’s summer season launch, Jonathan Nolan revealed to CinemaBlend that he was fortunate sufficient to have already screened his brother’s newest movie. Whereas they’ve collaborated previously, most notably on Memento, The Status, and The Darkish Knight, the youthful Nolan brother shouldn’t be concerned with The Odyssey. “I’ve seen The Odyssey. It is large. It is an unimaginable achievement,” Nolan informed CinemaBlend.
“I used to be fascinated by The Iliad and The Odyssey once I was youthful, and I had some enjoyable conversations with Chris about the place he is taking it. It is a spectacular movie,” he continued. Nolan additionally confirmed that he’d seen the entire movie, reiterating that he felt it was “large.”
Nolan went on to share what he remembered of his older brother’s lifelong love of storytelling and movie-making: “A few of my earliest recollections are of Chris… making movies. He is seven — six or seven years older than me. And so, once I was two or three years outdated, he was already, you realize — my mother had given him my dad’s tremendous eight digicam, and he was already laborious at work.”
“It has been a protracted journey,” he concluded.
Apparently, Christopher Nolan himself lately shared that Greek and Latin mythology have impressed and fascinated him since his childhood, too. In an interview with Empire final 12 months, the Oscar-winning director revealed that one among his earliest recollections was watching “a faculty play of Ulysses (the Latin variant of the Odyssey) when he was 5 – 6 years outdated.”
The mythology’s affect has stayed with him ever since. “I believe it is in all of us, actually,” the director stated. “And if you begin to break down the textual content and adapt it, you discover that every one of those different movies — and all of the movies I’ve labored on — you realize, they’re all from The Odyssey. Emma [Thomas, Nolan’s wife and fellow producer] stated it greatest once we first introduced the venture: it is foundational.”
Starring alongside Damon in The Odyssey are different returning Nolan collaborators, together with Anne Hathaway as Odysseus’ spouse, Penelope, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, one among Penelope’s many suitors, and Benny Safdie as Greek military commander Agamemnon. Elliot Web page can even star within the movie.
Different solid members embrace Tom Holland as Odysseus’ son, Telemachus, Zendaya because the goddess Athena, Charlize Theron because the sorceress Circe, Jon Bernthal as Agamemnon’s brother, Menelaus, Mia Goth as housemaid Melantho, John Leguizamo as swineherd and Odysseus’ good friend, Eumaeus, in addition to Lupita Nyong’o, Ryan Hurst, James Remar, Travis Scott, Samantha Morton, and Logan Marshall-Inexperienced.
It appears making The Odyssey has been a very long time coming for Nolan, who was beforehand within the working to direct Wolfgang Petersen’s 2004 Greek epic, Troy. Jonathan Nolan’s feedback verify that this can be a true labor of affection for his older brother; the outcomes will converse for themselves when the film arrives in cinemas later this 12 months.
The Odyssey opens in theaters on July 17.