Skip to Content Subscribe Our Offers My Account Manage My Subscriptions FAQ Newsletters Canada Canadian True Crime Canadian Politics Health World Israel & Middle East Financial Post NP Comment Longreads Puzzmo Diversions Comics NP News Quiz New York Times Crossword Horoscopes Life Eating & Drinking Style Sponsored Play for Ontario Travel Travel Canada Travel USA Travel International Cruises Travel Essentials Culture Books Celebrity Movies Music Theatre Television Business Essentials Advice Lives Told Tails Told Shopping Buy Canadian Home Living Outdoor Living Kitchen & Dining Tech Style & Beauty Personal Care Entertainment & Hobbies Gift Guide Travel Guide Amazon Prime Day Deals Savings National Post Store More Sports Hockey Baseball Basketball Football Soccer Golf Tennis Driving Vehicle Research Reviews News Gear Guide Obituaries Place an Obituary Place an In Memoriam Classifieds Place an Ad Celebrations Working Business Ads Archives Healthing Epaper Manage Print Subscription Profile Settings My Subscriptions Saved Articles My Offers Newsletters Customer Service FAQ Newsletters Canada World Financial Post NP Comment Longreads Puzzmo Diversions Life Shopping Epaper Manage Print Subscription HomeCultureMoviesThe Odyssey director Christopher Nolan reveals why he never takes the safe road You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.L to R: Director Christopher Nolan with Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, ASC on set of The Odyssey, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan. Universal PicturesNEW YORK CITY — More than 20 years ago, Christopher Nolan was hired to direct Brad Pitt’s swords-and-sandals epic Troy. Loosely adapted from Homer’s Iliad, the film depicted the decade-long Trojan War and featured legendary figures from Greek mythology like Achilles, Odysseus, Agamemnon and more.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an Accountor“That didn’t work out,” Nolan, 55, says in an interview in a downtown Manhattan hotel, “but I went off to Batman instead, so it all worked out fine.”Despite the project falling through, the award-winning filmmaker had long thought he wouldn’t mind taking a stab at another one of Homer’s Greek epics — The Odyssey.After directing Oppenheimer, his 2023 biopic on Robert Oppenheimer, creator of the atomic bomb, Nolan found himself returning to the idea of adapting Homer’s monumental poem for the big screen.With The Odyssey, Nolan gets a chance to fulfil his dream of tackling one of literature’s greatest fables.Matt Damon plays the heroic Odysseus who after fighting in the Trojan War, embarks on a perilous journey back to his wife Penelope, played by Anne Hathaway, and son Telemachus (Tom Holland).Below, Nolan speaks about how The Odyssey challenged him in new ways, casting Damon and the importance of taking risks.I don’t know how your process works. Do you have a bunch of ideas and one takes over? How did The Odyssey surface?I have things that I noodle and work on over the years. But I really do one thing at a time. When I’m making a film, I’m just thinking about that and not what’s next. Then you finish the film and it goes out to the world and I’ll look at the things I’d been thinking about over the years. In the case of The Odyssey, I had been briefly attached to direct Troy, the great David Benioff script, 20-something years ago … But I had a couple important images that stuck with me, particularly how I wanted to treat the Trojan Horse. The idea of it being half-buried in the sand, about to be destroyed by the waves. I also had this image of a soldier decapitating a statue with a sword. These things really stuck with me in a way that made me feel I wanted to address this world in some way. But I’m always looking for something new you can bring or some gap in the movie culture, and nobody had really taken on Greek mythology in movies.Could you have made this movie 10 years ago?No I couldn’t … I’ve done films with intense logistics — where you’re travelling to different countries. I’ve done films with intense stunt work … I’ve done films with a lot of marine work … The Odyssey brings a lot of different things together. You’re bringing battle scenes and boats and visual effects all together … So, the mantra on the film for all heads of department was, ‘Give (moviegoers) a reason to believe.’ The audience wants to go on this journey with you. So, you have to put in the work to give people a reason to believe in these incredible things. That was an extraordinary creative challenge for everyone involved. How are we going to have (goddess of magic) Circe turn a bunch of soldiers into pigs? How do we approach the fantastical elements? How do we put (one-eyed giant) Cyclops in a movie? How do we bring people into the cave with Cyclops and make that feel like something they can believe in? My feeling was that if you can give (the audience) that experience, that would be something special. Something people haven’t had before. Center L to R: Jimmy Gonzales is Cepheus, Matt Damon is Odysseus and Himesh Patel is Eurylochus in THE ODYSSEY, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan. Universal PicturesIt’s incredible to watch Matt Damon’s transformation into this character. He’s someone I’ve grown up watching. Why did you settle on him?I don’t think about actors while I’m writing. I try and really write from inside the characters and try and really discover the characters on the page. If you write with an actor in mind, you’re going to limit the character by what you’ve seen them do before. You’re going to be distracted. After having done that, how do you cast Odysseus? The thing about Odysseus is, Odysseus is a complicated character who works incredibly well as a supporting character in the Iliad. If you (compare it to) Star Wars, he’s more like Han Solo than Luke Skywalker. He’s a really good supporting character because he’s wily and not always trustworthy and he’s smart and clever. In The Odyssey, he’s centre stage. So you need someone who has a relationship with the audience; a trust. The thing with Matt is, he’s an incredible actor technically and artistically, but he’s also a movie star who has the charisma to take the audience with him and take them into a character’s dilemma. He doesn’t lose the audience.Ever since your breakthrough with Memento in 2000, we’ve never seen you repeat yourself as a filmmaker. How important has risk been to your career?I think for me the bigger risk would be repeating yourself and doing something you already knew how to do … Creatively, I’m looking to challenge the people I’m working with and challenge myself to do something we haven’t done before. We have a lot of skills, we have a lot of techniques. We got a lot of confidence from things we’ve done in the past. But you want to scare yourself a little bit. You want to go a bit further creatively and artistically. You want to put people in a less comfortable place. And that to me is less of a risk than resting on your laurels and showing an audience something they may have already seen before. That to me is a scarier proposition. I’m very motivated and driven by the idea of putting on a show for the audience that they haven’t seen before.The Odyssey is the first feature-length movie in history to be filmed entirely on Imax. What was that like?It was incredible. I’ve wanted to do it since I was a teenager. Filmmakers like Toni Myers and Greg MacGillivray were doing unbelievable work. They were taking these cameras on airplanes, into space, up Mount Everest. So, I wondered why couldn’t we take it into a studio? The big barrier was always sound. We started with the Dark Knight, doing action sequences that way and built on that through my career. But we were never able to get the intimate moments. So, for this film, I challenged Imax to build us new cameras so that we could shoot the whole thing on Imax. We went into it with a backup plan, carrying other types of cameras we could use if we couldn’t do this. But about halfway through the shoot, Hoyte and I were filming one of the most intimate scenes between Matt and Anne, and it had gone well. It really worked. We suddenly looked at one another and said, ‘OK, we can do this. We can do the whole film this way.’ From that moment on, everyone just rose to the challenge and just embraced it. But for me, it’s the fulfilment of a long held dream to do that.The Odyssey opens in theatres July 17. Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.