Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has proven to be a massive hit, earning over $264 million at the box office within five days of its release. The film, made on a budget of $250 million, was released on July 17 and starred Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Robert Pattinson in the lead roles.
While fans have been praising the film, Nolan has now opened up about the difficulties of making The Odyssey, revealing why he considers it the most challenging project of his career.
Speaking to CBS Mornings, the filmmaker known for Inception, Interstellar, and Oppenheimer said that the biggest challenge was the scale of The Odyssey itself. He added that he knew a story this big would not be easy to make, but he and his team were ready for the challenge and wanted to make the best film possible.
Continue reading to find out what made The Odyssey a difficult film for Nolan to bring to life.
The challenges Christopher Nolan faced while making The Odyssey
Christopher Nolan, known for his authenticity and for depending less on green screens in his films, shot his recent film across six countries, which even included locations that didn’t have roads and needed tons of walking. This reportedly includes Greece, Italy, Iceland, Morocco, Scotland, and the United States. Nolan’s decision to use practical effects and CGI also adds to the challenges, and one example of the same was the Cyclops scene, which required a huge 60-foot structure with moving mechanisms to be built.
The production also needed larger budgets, which Nolan has explained before when talking to Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. The filmmaker revealed that The Odyssey was possible because of the success of Oppenheimer, as it demanded a huge, star-studded cast, a big set, and other resources, all of which need a very huge budget. And since Oppenheimer became a blockbuster hit, earning Oscars, it became easier for the studio to trust Nolan with the new project.
Speaking to CBS Mornings, Christopher Nolan said that he wanted to create something the audience had not seen before. He explained that he was trying to push his technical limits and make a film that felt bigger while giving viewers a unique experience.
Another challenge that came with filming the film was shooting it entirely on IMAX cameras, which was Nolan’s dream since he was sixteen. Not only is it Nolan’s most ambitious project, but it is also the first feature film to be shot entirely on IMAX.
Nolan revealed that since the IMAX film reels only lasted for a little under three minutes, the cameras had to be reloaded often. This meant actors had to stay in the same emotional state, even during intense scenes, while waiting for filming to start again, which was another hard part.
Nolan explained that he expected The Odyssey to be a hard film to make because of the scale of the story. He even told Matt Damon while they were on a boat that it really was as hard as they expected. Nolan also talked about another challenge, which was the pressure of meeting the expectations of the audience since it was based on one of the most famous Greek epics, adding that he feels the film is not complete until the audience sees it.
However, Nolan is not the only one, as Matt Damon, who plays Odysseus in the film, also called it the hardest film that he has ever done because of the locations. The Odyssey follows Odysseus coming back to Ithaca to his wife, Penelope, and son, Telemachus, after winning the war.
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Edited by Vatsala Chauhan