Christopher Nolan used two million ft of film to make ‘The Odyssey’
Christopher Nolan has revealed he used two million ft of film to create his upcoming movie, The Odyssey.
The upcoming epic is set to arrive in cinemas on July 17th, 2026, after being shot across the world this summer. It stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, with the ensemble cast also including Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Elliot Page, Zendaya, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, and Jon Berthnal.
Now, in a new interview with Empire, Nolan said of the experience, “I’ve been out on [the sea] for the last four months. We got the cast who play the crew of Odysseus’s ship out there on the real waves, in the real places.”
He said of his creative process, “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 Oscar-winning director then made the jaw-dropping revelation, “We shot over two million ft of film.”
Nolan also explained why he felt attracted to the project, admitting that as a director he is “looking for gaps in cinematic culture”, before adding, “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.”
Meanwhile, in the same interview, Damon also spoke about the film, stating that the upcoming Homeric epic is “exactly what you want of a summer movie”.
The actor then went on to say it “should be the most massively entertaining film”, before sharing, “Without hyperbole, that it was the best experience of my career.”
The Odyssey arrives in cinemas and IMAX in July 2026.
Never Miss A Scene
The Far Out Film Newsletter
All the latest film news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.