Christopher Nolan brings Homer’s Odyssey to IMAX

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey represents “exactly what you expect from a summer movie” and “should be incredibly immersive, with a mythic spirit.”

This is how Matt Damon described Odyssey, Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s epic poem, in an interview with Empire. The film was shot entirely using IMAX 70mm cameras, CE Report quotes ANSA.

In the epic movie, set for release by Universal on July 16 in Italy and July 17 in the United States, Damon plays Odysseus. The star-studded cast includes Anne Hathaway (Penelope), Tom Holland (Telemachus), Robert Pattinson (Antinous), Zendaya (Athena), Charlize Theron (Circe), Jon Bernthal (Menelaus), Benny Safdie (Agamemnon), Bill Irwin (Polyphemus), as well as Lupita Nyong’o, Elliot Page, John Leguizamo, Mia Goth, Jimmy Gonzales, Samantha Morton, Himesh Patel, and Will Yun Lee.

Damon’s enthusiasm has been confirmed by audience reactions to the first official trailer, which was released recently and has already surpassed 16 million views on YouTube in a single day. The trailer arrived just days after a six-minute clip featuring the film’s prologue, shown only in select U.S. cinemas screening IMAX films such as Sinners and One Battle After Another.

The Odyssey trailer opens on a battlefield, followed by Odysseus in a forest with his soldiers. Damon’s voiceover says, “After years of war, nothing could stand between my men and home… not even me.” These words are accompanied by a brief scene between Telemachus and Penelope, and then by shots of the protagonist aboard a ship on a stormy sea.

Set to Ludwig Göransson’s powerful and evocative score, the trailer features brief scenes of the Trojan Horse, Odysseus and his companions facing Polyphemus in a cave, a ship caught in a violent storm, and an intense moment with Penelope holding Odysseus’ face and asking, “Promise me you’ll come back,” to which he replies, “And if I can’t?”

The blockbuster, made with a budget estimated at around $250 million, was filmed in Greece, Morocco, Iceland, and Italy, with locations including Favignana in Sicily—used primarily to represent Ithaca—the Aeolian Islands, and Ostia. The trailer has already been commented on by tens of thousands of viewers on YouTube and social media, mostly in enthusiastic terms.

Among the reactions: “The Odyssey is not about a return journey, but about whether a home still exists upon returning. A perfect story for Nolan,” or “Christopher Nolan is one of those directors so beloved for his art that his films are considered must-see events,” and even, “Probably the best movie ever after The Lord of the Rings… I hope.” Some criticism has emerged, however, regarding costumes and settings: “I didn’t know the ancient Greeks wore Batman helmets and sailed Viking ships,” one comment reads.

For the film, “over two million meters of film were shot,” Nolan told Empire, much of it in open sea conditions, “on real waves, in real locations.” His goal was “to truly show how harsh those journeys were for people, and the leap into the unknown they made when venturing into an unexplored world.”