With the release of Nolan’s The Odyssey imminent, the director took some time to speak on the nature of the brutality audiences can expect in the film. Arguably the biggest director working today, Nolan’s resume includes films like The Dark Knight, Interstellar, Inception, and most recently, 2024’s Best Picture-winning Oppenheimer.
The Odyssey will follow Odysseus (Matt Damon) on a journey back home following the Trojan War. It is on this journey that he will encounter monsters, mythical creatures, and enemies, whilst battling his own inner demons as he tries to make it back home to his son, Telemachus (Tom Holland). One of the biggest tests will be going up against Laestrygonians, a tribe of man-eating giants destined to make quick work of Odysseus and his men. Nolan spoke with Empire about some of his goals when bringing this mythos to life.
It was a fun sequence to shoot… It’s really a thing of trying to get across the brutality. They’re warriors, and their weapons and armor is of a level of sophistication that Odysseus has never seen.
Almost exclusively utilizing practical effects, the film is shot entirely on IMAX film cameras, with seven being used throughout production, according to Empire.
The point of the Laestrygonians in the story, as in the original poem, is to show in some ways the questionable nature of Odysseus’ leadership. To give his men reason to doubt him… And so what they come up against leaves them all shaken.
The Odyssey is also set to star Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, Zendaya, Benny Safdie, Jon Bernthal, and more. Nolan’s epic will hit theaters on July 17, 2026.
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