Christopher Nolan isn’t rushing to make another movie after ‘The Odyssey’: “I definitely hit the limits of my own stamina”
Director Christopher Nolan has admitted that the toll it took to make The Odyssey means he’s in no rush to get behind the director’s chair anytime soon.
The Odyssey, which is an adaptation of Homer’s Ancient Greek epic poem, has been a labour of love for Nolan that he has wanted to bring to the big screen for over 20 years.
Once he got the opportunity to bring the story of Odysseus and his ten-year journey back home to his family from the Trojan War, following the box office success of Oppenheimer, Nolan poured everything he had into ensuring he did justice to the original text.
As a result of the time and effort that Nolan and everyone around him have put into making The Odyssey, which stars Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Himesh Patel, Tom Holland and Charlize Theron, Nolan has stated that it will be “at least” three years until his next movie arrives.
“I definitely hit the limits of my own stamina and everybody’s stamina, I think,” he admitted to Today, before adding, “I mean, it’s The Odyssey, of course it should be difficult. We’re not doing the job right making a film of The Odyssey if it doesn’t seem difficult.”
One challenging aspect that made The Odyssey gruelling to make was the decision to shoot it on IMAX 70 millimetre film, which had never been done before on a major Hollywood production.
Nolan reflected, “For The Odyssey, I went to IMAX and I said, ‘Look, if ever we are going to fulfill this dream of shooting the entire movie that way, this is the one. This is The Odyssey. And so for the first time ever, I finally realised that dream of doing a film that way”
The blood, sweat and tears that Nolan, as well as the cast and crew, have already begun to pay dividends following an almighty start to the global box office, generating $264 million in sales during its opening weekend.
The United States made up for $124.5 million of the total, with only Toy Story 5 and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie having bigger starts at the box office in 2026.
Universal had previously aimed for a $100 million opening weekend in the US, which was surpassed with ease by The Odyssey.
In a five-star review, Far Out wrote of Nolan’s latest picture, “The Odyssey is the film event of the year because it realises Nolan’s ambition of making cinema that needs to be experienced, and not just consumed. This is a story that can’t exactly be ‘spoiled’, but the visualisation, thematic analysis, and emotional calculations inherent to the filmmaker’s interpretation justify another retelling.”
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