Nolan Went All Out: ‘The Odyssey’ Shot on Over 2 Million Feet of Film

Christopher Nolan is heading back to theaters in 2026 with what’s shaping up to be his biggest and boldest movie yet.

The director is taking on The Odyssey, a massive adaptation of Homer’s legendary Greek tale, and it looks like he’s going all in to make it feel as real and epic as possible.

Speaking about the film, Nolan revealed that they “shot over 2 million feet of film” — most of it out at sea.

He explained to Empire, “It’s pretty primal … We got the cast out there on the real waves, in the real places. It’s vast and terrifying and wonderful and benevolent, as the conditions shift. We really wanted to capture how hard those journeys would have been for people. And the leap of faith that was being made in an unmapped, uncharted world.”

The movie stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, who faces countless dangers while trying to get home after the Trojan War. Anne Hathaway plays Penelope, while Tom Holland, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, and Jon Bernthal round out the star-filled cast.

According to Universal Pictures, Nolan began working on the script in early 2024 and locked in the project later that year. Filming ran from February to August and took place across several countries, including Greece, Italy, Morocco, Iceland, Scotland, and Western Sahara. With a production budget estimated at $250 million, The Odyssey is reportedly the most expensive film Nolan has ever made. It’s also his first to be shot entirely using IMAX 70mm film cameras.

The project is produced by Nolan and his longtime collaborator Emma Thomas through their company Syncopy. Universal will release the film in theaters on July 17, 2026.

With Oppenheimer still fresh in people’s minds, Nolan’s decision to tackle one of history’s oldest and most influential stories shows his drive to keep pushing cinematic limits. It sounds like The Odyssey could be a true test of scale, endurance, and storytelling, both for its cast and for audiences ready to be swept away.

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