For years now, writer-director Christopher Nolan has perfectly leveraged IMAX cameras to bring about unique blockbuster like no other and now, the Oppenheimer Oscar-winner is going all in on the large-scale format.
When it launches next summer, Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Greek epic The Odyssey will be historic in more ways than one; it will be the first feature film ever shot entirely on IMAX film. The Odyssey isn’t the first film to be shot entirely using IMAX hardware- that honor goes to Avengers: Infinity War- but it’s the first to do so while shooting on film rather than digital.
Nolan has been working toward making a movie entirely with IMAX cameras since 2008, when ‘The Dark Knight’ became the first Hollywood movie to utilize IMAX cameras to shoot select action scenes. Since then, Nolan has leveraged IMAX cameras for increasingly more scenes with every new release.
2023 Oscar winner Oppenheimer was the first movie by Nolan to use IMAX black-and-white 65mm film, which required both modifying the IMAX cameras and developing new film stock with Kodak. ‘The Odyssey’ is being shot by cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, who has collaborated with Nolan on ‘Interstellar,’ “Dunkirk,” “Tenet” and “Oppenheimer.”
IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond announced the news during a press lunch as part of the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday, revealing that it began as a challenge from Nolan. “Chris called me up and said, “if you can figure out how to solve the problems, I will make (Odyssey) 100 percent in IMAX.” And that’s what we’re doing.”
The new cameras are said to be both lighter and 30 percent quieter. Gelfond says the company has also developed new film scanning and processing technologies to make it quicker and easier to watch footage back as it’s shot. For now the new cameras are exclusive to Nolan, but will be made available to other directors after The Odyssey wraps production.
Nolan adapted Homer for ‘The Odyssey’ and is re-teaming with “Oppenheimer” studio Universal Pictures for the movie’s release. At Cinema Con earlier this year, Jim Orr, the studio’s distribution chief, predicted that “The Odyssey’ will be a ‘visionary, once-in-a-generation cinematic masterpiece that Homer himself would quite likely be proud of.’
“What large-format photography gives you is clarity, first and foremost,” Nolan explains in the Oppenheimer production notes. “It’s a format that allows the audience to become fully immersed in the story and in the reality that you’re taking them to.” “The Odyssey” is set for release in theaters on July 27, 2026.
