Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is a mythic action epic filmed across the globe using groundbreaking IMAX® film technology. It brings Homer’s foundational saga to the screen as the first feature film ever shot entirely with IMAX® Film Cameras.
The film stars Academy Award® winner Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting, The Martian) as Odysseus, King of Ithaca, alongside BAFTA winner Tom Holland (Spider-Man series, Avengers: Endgame) as his son, Telemachus. Academy Award® winner Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables, The Dark Knight Rises) plays Penelope, Queen of Ithaca and wife of Odysseus, while Robert Pattinson (The Batman, Good Time) stars as Antinous.
Christopher Nolan has become one of modern cinema’s defining filmmakers. His films, including Oppenheimer, Tenet, Dunkirk, Interstellar, Inception and The Dark Knight Trilogy, have earned more than $6 billion at the global box office and collected 18 Academy Awards® from 49 nominations. In 2023, Oppenheimer grossed almost $1 billion worldwide before winning seven Academy Awards®, including Best Director and Best Picture.
The Odyssey tells a unique and ambitious story through a non linear narrative filled with flashbacks, parallel storylines, stories within stories and rich thematic layers. At its heart are two central characters: Odysseus, the legendary King of Ithaca whose ingenious Trojan Horse strategy helped secure victory in the Trojan War, and Telemachus, the son he left behind as an infant.
As Odysseus battles gods, monsters, storms and unimaginable tragedy on his long journey home, Telemachus searches for hope that his father is still alive. Meanwhile, Ithaca faces its own crisis as a ruthless group of princes and noblemen occupy the royal palace, pressuring Penelope to abandon hope, choose a new husband and crown a new king.
Bringing Homer’s timeless epic to life, The Odyssey adapts one of the most influential works in Western literature for the modern cinema audience. Filmed across six countries with an extraordinary ensemble cast, Nolan’s thirteenth feature also fulfils a long held ambition to create an entire film using IMAX Film Cameras, delivering what promises to be his most immersive cinematic experience to date.
“Your experience as a filmmaker informs the choices you make in a number of different ways, including what you feel prepared for, what you feel that you have the skill set for, and what will give you a new challenge but builds on what you’ve done before,” says Christopher Nolan.
“The Odyssey is an incredible work that’s extremely important to the history of the world and development of culture, but it has never been adapted as a modern blockbuster. I was energized by the challenge of creating the mythic world of Ancient Greece and excited about telling its story, with all its rich themes, in a way I’d never seen.”
While adapting The Odyssey presents an enormous creative challenge, Nolan’s previous films have uniquely prepared him for the task. Its complex narrative structure echoes the storytelling of Oppenheimer, its globe spanning locations recall Inception, while its epic battles, dangerous missions and large scale action sequences build on the filmmaking experience showcased in Dunkirk and Tenet.
The Odyssey is more than just another blockbuster. It is a true cinema event and a landmark piece of cinematic history that deserves to be experienced on the biggest screen possible. See it in Australian cinemas from 16 July.
