1st Look At 'The Odyssey' With Anne Hathaway & Matt Damon Promises An Insanely Entertaining Summer Blockbuster And Sir Christopher Nolan Claims They Shot Over 2 Million Feet Of Film Using IMAX Cameras Only? PRAISE THE GODS!
All due respect to Armand Assante, it's about damn time we get an updated remake of 'The Odyssey'. They certainly tried their best with his TV mini-series in 1997, but a tale so historically epic deserves the FULL force of cinematic power. Big ass screen, even bigger sound, and a cast worth dying for. Oh, and having Christopher Nolan directing it all is a small piece of the puzzle too...
And thankfully after months of specluation and a super secret teaser trailer, we're finally starting to get some peeks at the pure magic coming our way July 17th. As is tradition, it looks like Sir Chris fucking COOKED on this one.
And when it comes to Nolan promotion, less is always more for him. He's one of the few filmmakers that understands what an audience truly wants and what they need to see/not see in order to get to the theatre. His movie trailers never give any big surprises away, why more directors can't try that method out I'll never know.
But shit has been so tight lipped on this project that there isn't even a trailer to embed right now. This summer they did play a 1 minute teaser of 'The Odyssey' before 'Jurassic World' but you had to be in those IMAX seats to see it. Any clips posted online were immediately taken down. But anyone that saw it knows, we definitely have an absolute banger on our hands. Hopefully the rumors are true about a full trailer getting released ahead of 'Avatar' in December.
How many movies can sell out opening night before people even see a single solitary clip? That is POWER. That is Nolan.
And judging from everything the cast is saying so far, those advance tickets selling out makes plenty of sense. If 'Oppenheimer' made over a billion dollars, what the hell is the projection for this? Zillions?
“As a filmmaker, you’re looking for gaps in cinematic culture, things that haven’t been done before. And what I saw is that all of this great mythological cinematic work that I had grown up with – Ray Harryhausen movies and other things – I’d never seen that done with the sort of weight and credibility that an A-budget and a big Hollywood, IMAX production could do.” “I’ve been out on it for the last four months. We got the cast who play the crew of Odysseus’ ship out there on the real waves, in the real places. And yeah, it’s vast and terrifying and wonderful and benevolent, as the conditions shift. We really wanted to capture how hard those journeys would have been for people. And the leap of faith that was being made in an unmapped, uncharted world.”
The director shot several scenes on the open ocean: “It’s vast and terrifying and wonderful and benevolent, as the conditions shift. We really wanted to capture how hard those journeys would have been for people. And the leap of faith that was being made in an unmapped, uncharted world… By embracing the physicality of the real world in the making of the film, you do inform the telling of the story in interesting ways. Because you’re confronted on a daily basis by the world pushing back at you.”
“I saw the horse on the beach and I was just like, ‘Fuck,’ … It was just so cool" “[It's] exactly what you want of a summer movie … It should be the most massively entertaining film. It should feel mythic"
So let's just take a second to appreciate a living legend and one of the greatest storytellers in human history. Maybe these little nuggets aren't enough for the general population but for me, they sent my mythical boner to the maximum. And even if you don't vibe with the movies Nolan makes, you still gotta respect his tastes. Truly a man of the people.
Salut mi familia indeed. Maybe Vin Diesel can convince him to take the reins for 'Fast X Part II: The Finale Begins'? That would be sick.
But until then I'm just glad we get another summer blockbuster from the master of his craft. Impossible to pick a favorite from his career, really does depend on the day, but gun to my head my Top 3 would be:
1. Inception
2. Interstellar
3. Dark Knight/The Prestige
And with that I leave you with the Queen of Ithaca herself, real life goddess/possible vampire Anne Hathaway. July can't come soon enough. THANK YOU SIR CHRIS!
Jean-Paul Aussenard. Getty Images.
Lee Celano. Getty Images.
Chris Weeks. Getty Images.
Chris Weeks. Getty Images.