One of the most anticipated films of this 2026 is undoubtedly the new version of ‘The Odyssey’, by Christopher Nolan, who has assured that the shooting was “an absolute nightmare, but in a good way”.
“We had a phenomenal time” in a shooting that took place in Morocco, Greece, Italy, Iceland and Scotland, Nolan said in an intervention at CinemaCon, which closes Thursday in Las Vegas (USA), according to the specialized media Variety.
Received with a standing ovation, the British filmmaker explained in a very straightforward way the reason why he decided to make a film of Homer’s epic poem, a story “that has fascinated generation after generation for 3,000 years”.
“It’s not a story. It’s the story,” Nolan said before unveiling previously unseen footage from the film, which will be released on July 17.
Images that begin with the protagonist, Ulysses (played by Matt Damon) on the beach, when he confesses to Calypso (Charlize Theron) that he has been away from home for so long that he doesn’t remember anything before Troy.
“Did I have a wife? Children? Maybe a son? (…) If I had a son, how old would he be now?” he wonders.
Most of what was shown at CinemaCon are scenes about the famous wooden horse attack that the Greeks used as a ruse to enter the city of Troy at the end of the war that began after the Trojan prince Paris abducted Helen, wife of the king of Sparta, Menelaus.
Also on view was part of a scene in which Odysseus (the Greek name for Odysseus) asks his soldiers to keep rowing in the midst of a raging storm, and another in which the hero and his men confront the man-eating Cyclops Polyphemus (Bill Irwing).
The filmmaker especially highlighted the “incredible” work of Damon, his “partner in this adventure”. “He was on the boats, in the mountains, in the caves, under the scorching sun, the torrential rain, the wind (…) It was predestined,” he added.
Joining Damon in ‘The Odyssey’ are Tom Holland as his son Telemachus, Anne Hathaway as his wife, Penelope, and a long list of stars including Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie and John Leguizamo.
Nolan joked about the concentration of familiar faces by saying, “It will be quicker to say who’s not in the movie.”
The Odyssey’ is the first film to be shot entirely with Imax cameras – ultra-high resolution 65 mm film.
“As a kid, all I wanted to do was tell stories on a grand scale using that technology,” said Nolan, who said he spent many years trying to make what he has now achieved with ‘The Odyssey’ a reality.
Starting with ‘The Dark Knight’ (‘The Dark Knight’, 2008). “We shot the action sequences in Imax, but we were never able to shoot the whole movie. My crew did an amazing job figuring out how to do this for the first time.”
And although ‘Oppenheimer’ (2023) was shot in 70 mm, reported Agencia EFE, only a few cinemas worldwide had the technical capacity to screen it in this format.
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