{"id":583275,"date":"2026-07-13T12:17:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T12:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/583275\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T12:17:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T12:17:13","slug":"how-universal-made-a-8800-pound-trojan-horse-for-the-odyssey-premiere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/583275\/","title":{"rendered":"How Universal Made a 8,800 pound Trojan Horse for The Odyssey Premiere"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWith almost the full cast in attendance, last week\u2019s \u201cThe Odyssey<\/a>\u201d world premiere in London offered more star power than any other event seen in Leicester Square this year. And yet on the night, the likes of Christopher Nolan, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron and many others were somewhat overshadowed \u2014\u00a0figuratively and literally \u2014\u00a0by an extremely large inanimate object. <\/p>\n

\n\tStanding on two huge hooves just off from the carpet (this one an aquatic-themed blue with added patches of real sand) loomed a giant Trojan Horse well over two storeys high and easily the most impressive promotional prop many attendees had laid eye on.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn details now provided to Variety by Universal, the mighty steed in question \u2014 visible from several streets away\u2014\u00a0was in fact some 36 feet tall and weighed in excess of 8,800 pounds. <\/p>\n

\n\tCommissioned by Universal Pictures International UK & Eire, the construction\u00a0is actually an exact replica of the wooden horse used in Nolan\u2019s \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d made using the production\u2019s blueprints. It took a team of 34 working a total of 288 hours to put it together using polystyrene, steel, resin tin foil and fibreglass.<\/p>\n

\n\tBringing the beast \u2014\u00a0an sumptuous offering to the gods of film distribution \u2014\u00a0to Leicester Square proved to be a minor Odyssey in itself. Three trucks transported it in four parts and a base which then took six people some nine hours to assemble. It was around the same amount of time to disassemble and put the pieces back in the trucks. In all, designing, building and assembling the horse involved a team of 45, not much less than the number of men on Odysseus\u2019 ship (and roughly the same amount on board after the Cyclops and Scylla monsters had plucked off a few).<\/p>\n

\n\tAhead of \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d release on July 17, the 36-foot horse will next be put back together in London\u2019s Trafalgar Square for just one day on July 13 before getting a four-day stint outside the Westfield London shopping mall from July 16. <\/p>\n

\n\tAnd while this giant Trojan Horse will be staying in the U.K., that doesn\u2019t mean the U.S. has gone short of enormous mythical stallions. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn fact, there are two different horses in the country. At Universal Studios\u2019 CityWalk, the original from the film \u2014\u00a0last seen on screen in flames as Troy was brutally sacked by Damon\u2019s army of rampaging Greeks \u2014 is on display outside the AMC Universal Cinema. The other has already been roaming around, popping up in Venice, Texas and then Miami last month. This Tuesday, New Yorkers will get to marvel at its towering magnificence when it makes its red carpet debut at the U.S. premiere of \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d at AMC Lincoln Square 13. <\/p>\n

\n\tBut for all of these Trojan Horses\u2019 impressive stats, not to mention the amount of hours needed to build them and and drag them around, it still remains to be seen whether they generate as much awe-struck excitement as a distinctly smaller and more plastic-y promotional steed: \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d popcorn bucket. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With almost the full cast in attendance, last week\u2019s \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d world premiere in London offered more star…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[263],"tags":[18,117,19,17,327,23220,30853],"class_list":["post-583275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies","tag-nbcuniversal","tag-the-odyssey"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}