What’s coming now is being hailed as another triumph, which is even more impressive when you think how dedicated Nolan is to shooting as much as he can for real – real ships, real seas, a real Trojan horse on a real beach.
In the early days, as news emerged about the film, Elon Musk hit out on X about casting decisions, including the choice of Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy. He shared a post by a right-wing blogger which accused Nolan of altering characters for awards-season or diversity-related reasons. Others then accused Musk and the blogger of racism and pointed out that Helen was a mythological figure, the daughter of Zeus who is born from a swan’s egg.
I’m one of the lucky few to have already watched the movie – and in the way Nolan would like all of us to: in an Imax cinema. Helen’s story is intriguingly told in the film, with a twist, and The Odyssey is a visual feast, the first feature film ever shot entirely on Imax film (“if you want naturalism, if you want to show somebody the way the world looks, celluloid film is the way to do it,” says Nolan).
He pushes back on my suggestion that he’s smuggling high art in the form of Homer’s story through the medium of a superhero movie.
“When you go to Homer, it’s a very crowd-pleasing story. It’s popcorn stuff. I mean that’s the joy of it and that’s why it’s endured for this long.”
Nolan’s aim, he tells me, is to “bring something fresh to the audience”.
“When Hollywood makes a mistake, it’s always the same mistake, which is to forget how much people want something new, how much they want something they haven’t seen before,” he adds.
