Christopher Nolan could make any movie he wants, and for his next project, he’s opted to make an adaptation of The Odyssey, the ancient Greek epic poem about the gods fucking with a war-weary guy by stranding him and his crew at sea for a decade as they fight to overcome cyclopes, sirens, and all manner of other mythological obstacles to get home. It could be bonkers. It will definitely by super expensive. And the movie is already sporting an all-star cast.
“Christopher Nolan’s next film ‘The Odyssey’ is a mythic action epic shot across the world using brand new IMAX film technology,” Universal Pictures announced at 5:00 p.m. two days before Christmas like you do. “The film brings Homer’s foundational saga to IMAX film screens for the first time and opens in theaters everywhere on July 17, 2026.” It was a strangely matter-of-fact way to reveal the answer to a riddle fans have been speculating about for months.
It’s the company planting a huge flag in the sand, warning rival movies to get the heck out of our way. Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, Anne Hathaway, and Matt Damon are all onboard in some capacity, though nothing has been revealed about which characters they will play. Maybe Pattinson will play Odysseus, the mastermind behind the Trojan Horse and the poem’s main character. Or maybe there are still a ton of other Hollywood stars who are still in the process of signing on.
Nolan’s period biopic thriller Oppenheimer, about the making of the atom bomb, pulled in nearly $1 billion at the global box office back in 2023. The director of The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, and Interstellar appears to have a knack for turning any source material, including WWII military maneuvers, into blockbuster gold. The result is movie studios being willing to give him lavish budgets to make whatever he wants, and top talent jockeying for the limited spots in his upcoming projects.
But what could really set Nolan’s take on The Odyssey apart is his penchant for non-linear storytelling, with out-of-order scenes, unreliable narrators, and occasional time dilation. The Odyssey has all of those things, and there’s potential for the epic poem, in Nolan’s hands, to be turned into more of a “What happened to Odysseus?” puzzle box thriller than a straightforward monster-slaying saga about the journey home. It’s also full of rich metaphoric language ripe for creative license and re-interpretation. The movie is set to begin filming next year.
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