“More than 600 km of film…” Christopher recounts the Homeric filming of The Odyssey

The director teases his blockbuster in the new issue of Empire.

The Odyssey by Christopher Nolan will be the event of 2026 at the cinema. And the filmmaker is starting to tease his epic film, which finished filming this summer. In the latest issue ofEmpirehe makes us salivate by describing his ambition in this new adaptation of Homer’s work.

“Emma (his wife and producer) said it all when we first announced the project: it’s foundational. There’s a little bit of everything. I mean, it really has all the stories.”

Nolan, who almost realized Troy (2004), seized this opportunity with a clear and precise objective: to create the greatest epic film of all time, surpassing all the peplums that we have seen since the invention of cinema.

“As a director, you look for spaces in cinematic culture, things that have never been done before. And what I saw is that in the big mythological films that I grew up with – the films of Ray Harryhausen and others – you don’t find the weight and the credibility that a very big budget film in Hollywood shot in IMAX can produce.“

The Brit takes advantage of his position in Hollywood, where the biggest studios are ready to give him carte blanche to shoot on film, and all stars dream of acting under direction. The cast of The Odyssey is enough to make you dizzy: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal… to name just a few.

Nolan saw the big picture, and announced that he had “filmed more than 600 kilometers of film“. He decided to anchor his story in reality, and to film in the Mediterranean. The very place where the story of Ulysses’ journey takes place. The Odyssey tells of the return of the hero of the Trojan War, to find his wife Penelope. A journey strewn with pitfalls which will last ten years.

What does Nolan learn from this experience, and in particular from filming on the open sea?

“It’s quite primal. I spent four months there. We had the cast playing the crew of Ulysses’ boat there, on real waves. And yes it is vast and terrifying and wonderful and benevolent, as conditions change. We really wanted to capture how hard these trips would have been for these people. And the blind faith it takes to launch into this uncharted and unknown world.“

It makes you want it, right? Patience, another eight months to wait. The Odyssey will be released in cinemas in France on July 15, 2026.