The Patron Saint of Movie Theaters has returned to CinemaCon, the exhibition industry’s annual trade show.
Christopher Nolan made his way to Las Vegas to talk up “The Odyssey,” his historical drama based on Homer’s Greek epic. Not that he needs to convince exhibitors to schedule any of his films. Movie theater operators adore Nolan because he’s the rare director who can get people to the big screen based on his name alone.
He was greeted with a standing ovation as he walked on stage at the Colosseum. An introvert, the filmmaker tried to deflect the attention, joking that he’s just happy that he’s not following Steven Spielberg (whose new film “Disclosure Day” was teased later in the afternoon) during Universal’s presentation to exhibitors.
“‘The Odyssey’ is a story that has fascinated generation after generation for 3,000 years,” he said. “It’s not a story. It’s the story.”
Nolan also brought an extended look of the Trojan horse the Greeks used to enter the city of Troy. The clip, which isn’t available to the public, begins with Matt Damon’s Odysseus, shirtless on the beach with a burly beard. He’s been gone a long time and admits he “can’t remember anything before Troy.
“Did I have a wife? Children? Maybe a son? If I had a son, how old would be be now?” Damon’s Odysseus asks in the footage.
Matt Damon stars Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, and chronicles his long and perilous return home after the Trojan War. Tom Holland portrays his son Telemachus while Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron and Jon Bernthal round out the ensemble. Since the film has such a robust call sheet, Nolan joked there were too many A-listers to bring to CinemaCon.
“How do you go about bringing this to a modern audience? Obviously, we start with the cast,” Nolan said. “It’ll be quicker for me to tell you who isn’t in the movie. I would have brought them all here but the massive weight of extraordinary talent would have collapsed the stage.”
“The Odyssey” will be the first movie shot entirely with Imax cameras, a feat that Nolan called “longest-held ambition.” His prior blockbuster, “Oppenheimer,” was particularly huge in Imax, with the premium format contributing a massive 20% of overall box office grosses. Some movie lovers even crossed state lines to see “Oppenheimer” in 70mm Imax, selling out those particularly large auditoriums for weeks. Nolan’s other major films include the “Dark Knight” trilogy, “Inception” and “Interstellar.”
More to come…
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