Christopher Nolan Says THE ODYSSEY Had to Be His Biggest Movie Yet as He Literally Cuts Together IMAX Film by Hand
Christopher Nolan is going all in with The Odyssey, and based on new footage from his 60 Minutes interview, this movie sounds like it’s pushing every limit imaginable.
In clips that have been released of the interview’s broadcast, Nolan talks about why adapting Homer’s legendary tale demanded a massive cinematic scale. The filmmaker explained:
“In taking on The Odyssey, it does become about scale. It needed to be the biggest film that we had done. It needed to be challenging to all of us, because that’s the nature of the story.”
That ambition apparently extended well beyond the size of the production. One of the clips shows Matt Damon as Odysseus steering a ship through brutal storm conditions, prompting 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley to joke:
“Looks like you nearly drowned Matt Damon.” Nolan laughed and responded: “We certainly put him through his paces.” Damon later confirmed the experience wasn’t exactly a relaxing shoot either, saying: “It was the hardest movie I’ve ever done by far. Not even close.”
The interview also pulls viewers into Nolan’s obsession with practical filmmaking and large-format cinema. The Odyssey is officially the first feature-length movie ever shot entirely on IMAX film, which sounds exactly like the kind of challenge Nolan would willingly take on.
The segment shows Nolan physically handling strips of film at what Pelley describes as the world’s last remaining film lab of its kind. The director is literally cutting and gluing frames together by hand as part of the editing process.
Pelley explains in the voiceover: “When Nolan was 16, he saw an Imax documentary at a museum and was spellbound by the five-story screen.”
He continued: “But Imax is expensive and cumbersome. Digital photography and editing are faster and cheaper, so almost no one does this anymore.”
That’s precisely why Nolan keeps fighting for it. Pelley adds: “Why keep this ancient art alive? Well, the 70mm Imax frame has resolution or image quality up to three times higher than digital. Art — the hard way.”
That pretty much sums up Nolan’s entire filmmaking philosophy. Whether audiences are ready or not, it sounds like The Odyssey is shaping up to be another gigantic theatrical event from the filmmaker who keeps finding new ways to make movies feel massive.
Between the fully IMAX-shot presentation, brutal practical filmmaking, and Damon surviving whatever Nolan threw at him on the open water, this project already sounds wild in the best way possible.
Nolan’s full 60 Minutes interview aired Sunday on CBS and is streaming on Paramount+.