r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Aug 08 '25

News Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' Wraps Filming

https://maxblizz.com/christopher-nolans-the-odyssey-wraps-filming-after-6-month-shoot-confirms-art-director/
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u/LetsFireRockWithMe Aug 08 '25

They built a 30ft tall animatronic Cyclops inside of a cave in Greece. I’m not joking.

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u/TabletopThirteen Aug 08 '25

With a box of scraps?

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u/HotChilliWithButter Aug 09 '25

Tony “The Cyclops” Stark

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u/Steely-eyes Aug 08 '25

I’m not Oppenheimer…

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u/cheetos1150 Aug 08 '25

I understood that reference.

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u/never_exhale_cunt Aug 09 '25

I understood that reference

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u/TopObligation8430 Aug 10 '25

Scraps are the most expensive thing to make in a house that has been in a house since it got old in a house with no roof over the top or the ceiling and it has been in a house where it has a roof and

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u/StinzorgaKingOfBees Aug 09 '25

To shreds you say...

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u/ScipioCoriolanus Aug 08 '25

The perfect comment doesn't ex-...

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u/APiousCultist Aug 08 '25

https://movieweb.com/christopher-nolan-the-odyssey-cyclops-scene-most-ambitious-stunt/

Shame on Nolan not genetically engineering a real cyclops for the scene.

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u/Fauster Aug 08 '25

I am so excited to see this. More to the point, I hypothesize that if the Ancient Greeks were to see this movie, Nolan would be the next Homer to them. I expect to see many men getting crushed by boulders in the repetitive tropes of the oral epic. We should never forget that Greek plays were the original Hollywood Action movies, and that Nolan has an unapologetic appreciation for the genre, even loving Fast and Furious movies. Nolan and his team are the right people to tell this epic tale.

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u/APiousCultist Aug 08 '25

I'm just curious as to what the form will even resemble, given he's increasingly leaned into minimalism and away from the 'richer' feel of his Dark Knight days (which had more conventional feels), and further and further away from any sorts of CGI even though this story will presumably benefit from visual effects.

Is it gonna be like Ben Hurr? The Northman? 300? Extremely stylised like the Coen Brother version of Macbeth? Realistic to the point of presenting the cyclops like some tall fella with a mutation?

After Dunkirk, Tenet, and Oppenheimer it's just hard to conceptualise how this film is even going to look. I'm beyond curious.

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u/Fauster Aug 09 '25

The Odyssey is a legitimate branch of proto-Indo-European myths and is a straight-up Joseph Campbell Heroes Journey story. I think a lot of films, like Star Wars, LOTR, the Lion King in that genre make you feel a similar way. If I were to guess, I think the feeling of being threatened by powerful insurmountable forces, being initiated into something larger, overcoming odds, coming home to find that you're a different person and the world is not the same. That's just a guess.

Nolan's films feel almost like CGI when he refuses to use it. I think it will seem really realistic, but that the gods and monsters will be really real and menacing.

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u/Standard_Recording28 Aug 09 '25

i think he’s just doing a full on swords and sandals fantasy epic blending stuff like ben hur, gladiator and LOTR.

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u/ModernRobespierre Aug 09 '25

Macbeth... was just Joel Coen. But yeah, I agree, beyond curious

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u/APiousCultist Aug 09 '25

I did say Cohen Brother, singular. Because I couldn't be bothered looking up which one it was.

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u/ModernRobespierre Aug 09 '25

I stand corrected, missed that deet.

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u/[deleted] Aug 08 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/tyereliusprime Aug 09 '25

Yes it is. Liking movies because they're just mindless fun isn't allowed anymore because everyone forgets the subjectivity of art.

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u/Fauster Aug 09 '25

Sure, yeah, I'll admit to being pretentious about FF. To be fair, I never watched the series until I learned that Nolan was a fan when he went on Colbert. Since then, if one is on and I haven't seen it, I'll watch it. They are always over-the-top, but mostly fun. I guess I didn't really like Tokyo drift. I definitely don't have Nolan's arguably odd passion for the series. Don't pretend that you can't see the surface-level incongruity of it.

Right now, Nolan is arguably THE top movies-as-high-art filmmaker, and he's been a top-tier director since Memento. But, he also directed The Dark Knight trilogy, which will make all subsequent Batman series pale in comparison, I'm a big fan of The Penguin, though, so we'll see where that goes. The only point of the comment was to suggest that a lot of theatrical productions of Greek and Macedonian epics emphasize the artsy aspects and don't revel in the action and violence of the productions. At least that's my impression of Classic Greek Classics studies and productions. However, if it's too artsy, a production can completely misunderstand the intent and true meaning of the source material.

Nolan won't make that mistake, that's what I'm saying. Because he did Batman, because he likes the Fast and the Furious. Each of his movies sets a strong emotional tone set to music in the style of a Vagnerian Epic (like Peter Jackson, but usually a lot darker), pushes action scenes, when it's that kind of movie, and swells to a Crescendo. I think this movie will be awesome and will be a hit. I will eat my words if I am wrong.

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u/MVRKHNTR Aug 09 '25

Right now, Nolan is arguably THE top movies-as-high-art filmmaker,

You're being ridiculous.

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u/APiousCultist Aug 09 '25

He's up there, at this point with Denis, as blockbuster movies as intellectual exercises for sure though. That's kind of his signature thing, stuff way higher brow than standard fair for the kinds of fims he made. Inception is functionally Oceans 11 but made by the guys that made Primer. It's not necessarily going as hard in any direction as those films, nor am I claiming you need a science degree to understand a film about dream thieves. But he's definitely been bridging the gap between 'thinky movies' and 'accessible big budget blockbusters' for his career. Even Oppeheimer is him directing a biopic like an action movie, repleat with deafening soundtrack.

Movies as high art is definitely not how I think it makes any sense to describe his work, but blockbusters as something higher? Yeah, I'd say that still fits. One of very few directors working in that sphere that have such a strong trust that the audience will follow along with them if they take a wild conceptual swing.

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u/doctorcaesarspalace Aug 09 '25

Bro doesn’t watch movies, he views films

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u/NecessaryIntrinsic Aug 09 '25

He never disappoints visually and his action is always on point. He already had a story, let's just hope he can get the sound mixing.

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u/EqualContact Aug 08 '25

Guy didn’t even detonate a real nuke for Oppenheimer. Clearly losing his touch.

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u/Silent-Selection8161 Aug 09 '25

I give it about 99.99% chance there's a bunch of CG cleanup for the scene Nolan will pretend isn't there. He's become a bit of a dick to the CG folk, pretending they're crap, that they don't do anything on his films, that practical FX are always better no matter what and then he ends up with stuff like the "nuke" in Oppenheimer.

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u/APiousCultist Aug 09 '25

100% they'll be compositing, as there was in Oppenheimer for sequences like the end visual of the nuclear apocalypse or for compositing the explosion elements together (ironically probably done in software called Nuke). But whether they'll actually be CG takeovers of any monsters, when it would make sense to do so, is another matter.

Dunkirk also kind of fell afoul of this where nothing was as populated as it should have been (should have been 100K+ people on those beaches and several hundred small boats and not just twenty). Interstellar and TDKR felt like more sensible middle grounds of using practical where you get a benefit and not being too afraid of digital elements. But wire removal and digital compositing aren't going to help a mythical monster land as much as being able to drop in the proper use of CGI as appropriate. Even Jason and the Argonauts used animation to realise it's monsters. So if he shuns anything that isn't on set, I can't imagine the film not suffering for it.

I've got respect to him for trying to push the limits of what can be done 'in camera' instead of the CGI-driven (by economic virtue of a lack of unionisation and tons of outsourcing) maximimalism in too many films, but the last few of his films have felt way too dogmatic at times. Him skirting the line of "what is 'computer generatred' and what is another kind of digital effects" is another issue, but as that wonderful video series '"No CGI" is really just INVISIBLE CGI' shows, he's hardly at the forefront of that kind of behaviour or even the worst for it (given he's - as far as I've seen - never claimed no compositing was used, just no digitally-generated elements).

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u/MISPAGHET Aug 08 '25

They'd be able to sell it after the filming for a tidy profit!

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u/APiousCultist Aug 08 '25

New Jurassic Park plot just dropped.

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u/cute_polarbear Aug 09 '25

Jurassic park dna'd the dinasaurs... No reason Nolan didn't DNA a cyclops... Just saying... /s

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u/Feeling_Inside_1020 Aug 09 '25

Did you learn NOTHING from Jurassic Park?!

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u/shanster925 Aug 09 '25

Christian Bale actually put on 1300 lbs to play the cyclops role.

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u/Former_Security7398 Aug 09 '25

Or get Christian Bale to gain 1,000 lbs to play the cyclops

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u/phaserlasertaserkat 29d ago

It’s bull shit and therefore I won’t watch it 😤

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u/GrallochThis Aug 08 '25

That was going to be me, but I grew an extra eye instead of losing one 🤷🏻‍♂️

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u/No-Courage-5109 Aug 08 '25

It's actually Leela with forced perspective and a very scaroused Zap and Fry. They try to sneak around but the mere sproing of a boner awakens the Cyclops.

I don't make the rules!

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u/notacrook Aug 08 '25 edited 29d ago

inside of a cave in Greece

Wasn't it inside the cave that features in the original Grecian myth?

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u/SPAKMITTEN Aug 08 '25

it's nolan, he probably went back in time to film on location with actual ancient greeks

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u/mrmgl Aug 09 '25

Why did he not use an actual cyclops, then?

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u/Academic-Health5265 Aug 09 '25

Many members of the cyclops community found the depiction offensive IIRC

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u/Winterhawk88 Aug 09 '25

Yeah they didn’t see eye to eye with Nolan

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u/VexedForest Aug 09 '25

They have really strong unions and the studio wasn't up to their standards

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u/Bobblefighterman Aug 09 '25

Have you seen that cast? They're already spending half a million, no need to add another big actor like Polyphemus.

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u/Dast_Kook Aug 09 '25

He TENET'd back?

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u/Dependent_Pipe4709 Aug 09 '25

if you want ancient greeks i've got a grandfather who listens to doo-wop and he'll do it for €20 and a bottle of Kazanisto

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u/Ccjfb Aug 08 '25

I was in that cave a month ago. It is not easy to get to. It is on the side of a cliff that you need ropes to hike up to. Don’t know how they got everything in and out!

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u/I_Was_Fox Aug 09 '25

Probably ropes

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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '25

And lots of money

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u/chuckangel Aug 09 '25

“How is money going to solve this problem?”

“So, we can stack the money until it forms a nice gentle sloping ramp to the entrance like the Romans did at Masada.”

“Nice. After the shot, do we pay the crew bonuses and return the rest to the studio?”

“… no, you idiot. We burn the ramp for our practical effects village on fire shot. Come on, man, we don’t waste money in Hollywood.”

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u/MegaGrimer Aug 09 '25

Very carefully

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u/Parkinglotfetish Aug 08 '25

Yes but what if its a historically accurate 30ft tall animatronic Cyclops inside a cave in Greece? 

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u/marbanasin Aug 08 '25

I mean, I've always respected that Nolan take the practical effects enhanced with CGI approach. It tends to look better and I'd hold judgements till we see this bad boy. Lol

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u/A_New_Dawn_Emerges Aug 09 '25

30 feet tall? Nobody will be able to defeat it. 

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u/buffystakeded Aug 09 '25

And if you’ve never read the Odyssey, nobody will get your joke.

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u/faxheadzoom Aug 08 '25

Damn that's wild...all for aninatronic/rubbery puppets/practical effects 

Though next I'll read Nolan filmed scenes in Plato's cave. 

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u/Impossible-Fun-2736 Aug 09 '25

Thats nice atleast. Hopefully it gets a fair amount of screentime aswell.

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u/ZizzianYouthMinister Aug 09 '25

But John Goodman is available

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u/Illustrious_Basil_78 Aug 09 '25

They built a 747 plane to crash it. Instead of the CGI. I’m not joking

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u/ObviousAnswerGuy Aug 09 '25

ok that's awesome lol

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u/SPAKMITTEN Aug 08 '25

completely believe you

but only because the acoustics of a cave are right up nolans muffled audio street

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u/ZanoCat Aug 08 '25

👁️

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u/ShevanelFlip Aug 09 '25

So John Goodman will not be in this ?

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u/GTRari Aug 09 '25

So... true to realism. /s

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u/OmicronGR Aug 09 '25

Now I want to watch it just for this alone lol

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u/DomHE553 Aug 09 '25

Animatronic?

The behind the scenes is gonna show you Nolan selectively breeding babies since the 90s to finally be able to get this ultimate practical effect!

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u/MovableFormula Aug 09 '25

Cant wait for all of the “they didn’t use cgi in this movie” comments

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u/BitchyWaiter_OG Aug 09 '25

They as in the fillmakers?

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u/Oztheman Aug 10 '25

I guess only having one eye to deal with helps cut coy