The Odyssey Begins
The Odyssey is the next step in Christopher Nolan’s filmmaking journey.
Words Thomas Patrick
Photo courtesy IMAX
May 17, 2025
There has been much debate in the film industry on how star power is no longer a guarantee for box office success. The biggest films of the past years have been sequels, part of a franchise, or popular IPs, as studios have become increasingly risk-averse. Only one name now carries enough star power and excitement to guarantee box office success: Christopher Nolan. Since the release of Oppenheimer, audiences have waited with bated breath for news of his next project, with many speculating that it could be the next Bond film (and with Amazon now in control, it could be on his radar). During the Christmas holidays, it was announced that Nolan would be adapting Homer’s famous Greek epic poem The Odyssey, and once again he has stacked his film with a huge cast of big names. Matt Damon will star as Odysseus alongside Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, Jon Bernthal, Elliot Page, and Charlize Theron. On the surface, this is another left-field choice from Nolan. Yet, dig deeper, and it is the next natural step for a director who has spent his entire career breaking new ground and defying expectations.
Christopher Nolan’s extraordinary career has been closely followed and examined by industry experts and cinema fans alike. Since his debut film The Following, which cost around £6,000 (₱348,852.00), Nolan quickly established himself as a top director through his cult classic Memento, the well-received adaption of the 1997 Norwegian film Insomnia, and the franchise rescuing Batman Begins, which arguably revamped the entire superhero genre. Since then, he has become the only filmmaker of the current era who is consistently successful enough to have complete carte blanche in terms of storytelling and funding over his projects. From The Dark Knight to Oppenheimer, the public has flocked to the cinema in large numbers to watch the next Christopher Nolan film (with the exception of the pandemic-affected Tenet). Of his contemporaries, only Quentin Tarantino arguably still has a similar draw based on his name alone, though not in terms of box office numbers. The other big-name directors have all experienced recent box office failures, and many have turned to streaming services to get their films made. Even Denis Villeneuve, widely considered Nolan’s main contemporary after the success of the recent Dune films, experienced a box office bomb with Blade Runner 2049. As it stands, Nolan stands alone.
One of the most crucial reasons that Nolan has remained so successful is his ability to break new ground and bring his distinct way of telling stories to different genres. This has made him a key figure in the cultural zeitgeist, with audiences feeling that they must watch his films in the cinema to stay ahead and be informed rather than waiting for the films to come to streaming. This legacy has led many to say that Nolan is the savior of the theatrical experience. For others, he is the Stanley Kubrick of our time—an auteur who writes, produces, and directs his films and is not afraid to tell stories across different genres. This was perfectly encapsulated by his last film Oppenheimer, which saw him tackle the biopic—a staple genre in Hollywood but not one many thought Nolan would tackle despite trying to make a biopic of Howard Hughes in the early 2000s. The move paid off and won him multiple awards, including two Oscars for Best Director and Best Film, as well as almost making a billion dollars at the box office.
How Nolan approaches The Odyssey will be one of the film’s biggest selling points. From the backward narrative of Memento and the non-linear films of Batman Begins, The Prestige, and Oppenheimer, to the one-week, one-day, one-hour structure of Dunkirk, Nolan’s use of time as a narrative device has always been his hallmark. The plot of The Odyssey in Homer’s poem takes place over ten years, which gives him ample opportunity to play with the structure. What has got film fans most excited is that Nolan is tackling a new genre, and we will get to experience his interpretation of a sword-and-sandals film.
With Nolan always favoring practical effects over CGI, he is once again rumored to be using practical effects for the monsters in the film, as well as hiring 5000 extras for the opening battle scene (presumably the final battle of the Siege of Troy). Nolan’s Odyssey will harken back to the golden age of epics in the ’50s and ’60s, such as Ben-Hur (1959) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
As with Oppenheimer, Nolan will shoot the entire film on IMAX and has even developed new cameras with IMAX to capture his epic. This once again shows his intent to continue pushing the boundaries of big-budget filmmaking. This again draws similarities with Kubrick, who used special lenses in Barry Lyndon to allow himself to shoot using only candlelight as the light source.
The Odyssey is, in many ways, a new beginning for Nolan in his third act as a director. His first act was one of universal success from The Following to Inception, which saw him rise from micro-budget indie director to the most exciting name in Hollywood. The second act has seen some pushback against Nolan, with The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar, and Tenet receiving criticism for their narrative and sound editing choices. And yet, in the end, Nolan created what many considered his strongest film in Oppenheimer and was finally rewarded by the film industry after being largely snubbed during awards seasons. Now, Nolan embarks on a new journey into an industry unsure of its future due to the popularity of streaming services, the rise of content creation, and the advancements of AI threatening to take jobs.
While The Odyssey isn’t a risk for Nolan in terms of getting the film made, it has an estimated budget of over $250 million, making it his most expensive film to date. The film industry will be watching closely to gauge the appetite of the public for big-budget original projects. As Nolan looks to change filmmaking through his new IMAX cameras, he will also be the leading light in the next era of cinema. Will he usher in a new era of exciting filmmaking that brings audiences back to the cinema, or will he still stand alone as the only director still allowed to break new ground?
