Tom Holland revealed to GQ magazine as part of the publication’s summer cover story for “The Odyssey” that he had an “uncomfortable conversation” with Sony Pictures boss Tom Rothman about delaying the production of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” so that he could film Christopher Nolan‘s epic instead. When Nolan first offered him the role of Odysseus’ son Telemachus, both movies had identical production start dates.
“So I said to Chris, like, ‘Look, I want to do this movie, but if I’m going to do it, I’m going to have to call Sony and have a very uncomfortable conversation,’ ” Holland remembered, noting that Sony agreed to push the new “Spider-Man” movie out of respect for both himself and for Nolan.
“I think one of the reasons why Sony were happy to move is because Chris has that reputation of, ‘This movie isn’t going to go five months over, and we aren’t actually going to lose Tom for two years,’” Holland said, nodding to how “The Odyssey” started on schedule and finished nine days early. “Any other director, it might have been a slightly different conversation.”
Holland told GQ that was even beneficial for “The Odyssey” to delay “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” as it opened the door for the Marvel movie to hire “Shang-Chi” helmer Destin Daniel Cretton as director.
