![\"Christopher](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/\/f70875b0-3ada-48f4-b742-c0ad35705676.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFor decades Christopher Nolan has had Hollywood at his beck and call. A twisted Batman? The dream thriller Inception? Matthew McConaughey going Interstellar? Huge budgets have reaped huge rewards, with Nolan\u2019s most recent film, Oppenheimer, his most singular to date. Who else could craft a three-hour time warp about physics and turn it into a bombastic triumph, nabbing seven Oscars and almost $1 billion?<\/p>\n
Nolan is an anomaly, a licence for studio execs to put that deposit on a beach house. So one can only imagine their shock when Nolan said that he wanted to follow Oppenheimer with an adaptation of The Odyssey, and that he needed an estimated $250 million. A poem from the 7th century BC, panicked suits must have cried: who\u2019s going to be interested in that?<\/p>\n
Everyone, it turns out. Nolan\u2019s The Odyssey is not out until July 17, 2026, but when 26 Imax cinemas worldwide put tickets online last month, 95 per cent of seats were reportedly snapped up within an hour. All showings at the two venues in London are booked up, with tickets going on eBay for hundreds more than face value. <\/p>\n
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Christopher Nolan\u2019s Oppenheimer won seven Oscars in 2024, including best picture and director<\/p>\n
SCOTT KIRKLAND\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t think of anything like this,\u201d says Phil Clapp, chief executive of the UK Cinema Association. \u201cTypically, films go on sale one to two months early so this speaks to the anticipation there is for a Nolan film. Also, I\u2019m not saying a film about a nuclear physicist is the easiest sell, but a movie based on a Greek fable is probably even tougher \u2014 so this gets people talking.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Odyssey is the epic story of Odysseus\u2019s decade-long journey home after the Trojan War. It is full of shipwrecks and monsters \u2014 and Nolan has gathered an all-star cast, with Matt Damon as Odysseus and Tom Holland as his son Telemachus. Other A-listers include Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson and Lupita Nyong\u2019o.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Odyssey: Everything to know about Christopher Nolan\u2019s latest epic<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n As yet, only a teaser trailer has been released, in which we see Holland speaking at a table. \u201cI have to find out what happened to my father,\u201d he says, to which his companion replies: \u201cWho has a story about Odysseus? Some said he perished. Some said he\u2019s imprisoned.\u201d So little is known about the film \u2014 not even how long it is as it is still being shot \u2014 that cinemas were able to sell only one screening a day. Nolan is still shooting, and recently ran into controversy<\/a> for filming scenes in a disputed area of the Western Sahara. <\/p>\n Daniel Mendelsohn is an author and essayist, who in April published a new translation of The Odyssey, a story he believes still resonates not just because it is a vast adventure, but also because it is about homecoming, a theme we all respond to. <\/p>\n \u201cNolan might be the perfect person to direct,\u201d he says. \u201cI know some academics raised an eyebrow, but he is a visually spectacular director. Also, The Odyssey has an odd structure \u2014 it moves back and forth and it\u2019s hard to figure out where you are, which is like Nolan.\u201d<\/p>\n It really is. You expect sci-fi works like Inception and Tenet, or Nolan\u2019s memory maze breakthrough Memento, to jump about in time, but the director played about with chronology even in his otherwise conventional war drama, Dunkirk. <\/p>\n \u2022 The best films of 2025 so far<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n What, I ask Mendelsohn, is he most looking forward to seeing up on screen? \u201cThe most crucial thing is to convey the horror of being wrecked at sea,\u201d he says, of one of Odysseus\u2019 many trials. \u201cAll the other stuff is fun, Scylla and Charybdis and the Cyclops \u2014 but we\u2019re straying into fantasy there. By far the most terrifying thing was being lost at sea, because it means you\u2019re erased totally. I am really looking forward to seeing what Nolan does with a shipwreck.\u201d <\/p>\n And what is he most worried about? \u201cThe greatest danger whenever people tackle canonical works is that it gets stuffy,\u201d Mendelsohn says. \u201cI am praying Nolan won\u2019t do that, because The Odyssey is, for all its adventures, a really intimate epic. I\u2019m just praying he doesn\u2019t get cowed by the greatness of his material.\u201d<\/p>\n Zoe Saldana in Avatar: Fire and Ash. The sequel is expected to be another major box office success<\/p>\n ALAMY<\/p>\n One thing he\u2019s not concerned about is the accuracy of various weapons and ships, something that has exercised a scroll of classicist nerds on Reddit since a photo of Damon came out. \u201cI want to be super-emphatic about this,\u201d Mendelsohn says. \u201cThe Odyssey was composed over generations and so to complain about its accuracy is to show a profound lack of understanding of what it is. There are films that got all the details right, from clothes to hairstyles, like Oliver Stone\u2019s Alexander, but completely missed the point of the story they were telling. I just want a movie that feels like The Odyssey.\u201d<\/p>\n Only a year to wait, then \u2014 with cinema chains hoping that recent upturns in box-office revenue continue into 2026, even if there is still work to do. \u201cNobody is complacent,\u201d Clapp says about this year\u2019s cinema admissions. \u201cWhether the audience is young, middle-aged or old, cinemas are having to work doubly hard to get people through the door and we\u2019re still down on pre-pandemic levels by a significant margin. Still, at the end of June we were 13 per cent up on admissions from 2024 and the second half of the year is looking strong.\u201d Incoming big hitters include Wicked: For Good and Avatar: Fire and Ash, sequels that should make something close to \u00a31 billion each worldwide. \u201cSo it\u2019s a slow recovery, but definitely a recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Read more film reviews,<\/b><\/a> guides about what to watch <\/b><\/a>and interviews<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Then comes Nolan. As yet no other films are slated for release next July 17, but surely rival distributors will be eyeing up the date in the hope of repeating that heady Barbenheimer weekender two years ago. The early on-sale date has treated Nolan like a rock star and made The Odyssey an event, creating a sense of high demand for something that cannot really sell out, given it will stay in cinemas for months. <\/p>\n There is a serendipity to this too. Years ago Nolan turned down an offer to direct Brad Pitt\u2019s Troy, loosely based on The Iliad. Instead he made Batman Begins, the bold blockbuster that showed Hollywood he could bring in a crowd for the most skewed of ideas. And now here we are, at the end of an odyssey that leads to The Odyssey.<\/p>\n Two-for-one cinema tickets at Everyman<\/p>\n![\"Zoe](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/\/d874f216-d47c-4d98-b378-d0744c23e12b.jpg\")
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