Nolan’s Homer’s Odyssey

You have everybody but Ben Affleck and Marky Mark in this, I don’t know what to think. Especially Tom Holland.

Fans want to cast him in everything.

I just expect it to be bland if its Nolan but have nice cinematography. If its anything like Dunkirk.

I’m not the biggest Nolan fan but this does sound interesting. There really hasn’t been a definitive adaptation of The Odyssey in the same way that, say, many people view Peter Jackson’s LOTR Trilogy as a definitive adaptation of Tolkien. I think the last time Hollywood produced a Homeric epic was when they adapted The Iliad into a movie called Troy, starring Brad Pitt, which (I vaguely recall) sucked pretty badly. But I have a bit more faith in Nolan, I guess. I’m interested in seeing how Hollywood will interpret The Odyssey in terms of casting and character design, and how all the mythological elements like the Cyclops, the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, etc. will be depicted with modern VFX technology. I at least trust Nolan enough to use some restraint and avoid indulging in a CGI explosion like Peter Jackson often does.

Also, the latter part of The Odyssey (comprising most of the 24-chapter epic poem), where Odysseus returns home to Ithaca in disguise, is probably difficult to adapt faithfully due to the vastly different cultural values we have in the 21st century, compared to the Bronze Age sensibilities of Homer’s original audience. I’m referring to the fact that in the “grand finale”, Odysseus violently murders dozens of Ithacan noblemen (some of whom begged for their lives) for the “crime” of courting his wife Penelope, even though these noblemen really did nothing wrong from their perspective (aside from perhaps being rude) because they all believed Odysseus was dead. Odysseus even brutally murders his own household slave girls because some of them slept with the noblemen. I assume stuff like this will not be included (without sufficient modification) in any modern Hollywood adaptation because Odysseus is the protagonist and his violent murder-spree would come off as incomprehensible to a 21st century audience. Regardless, I’m all for seeing Nolan attempt to adapt this stuff anyway, because it would be hilarious to see a modern Hollywood production written with a Bronze Age conception of morality.

Hopefully we’ll also get a Homeric Cinematic Universe featuring tie-ins with The Iliad and Virgil’s fan-fiction epic The Aeneid, culminating in an Avengers-style crossover event where Odysseus, Achilles and Aeneus join forces to fend off an invasion from the Underworld led by Hades and some guy named Elpenor (deep cut reference alert) who died after getting drunk this one time and falling off a roof.

Just finished watching The Return and can confirm it does not delve into the supernatural. The Ithacan noblemen are depicted as scheming and taking advantage of the locals in order to somewhat justify the “grand finale” mentioned by @Channel72.
I think they were trying for a more grounded interpretation. The thing that took me out of it was the fight choreography which is like something you would see in a stage play. Not very realistic at all.

IMO Interstellar proved he’s capable of adapting to film what would usually work best if it stuck to the written word. Considering that, I believe this adaption will be amazing. I have high hopes.

The emotional undercurrent in Tenet was non-existent, and a bit inaccessible on repeat watches of Oppenheimer. I hope that isn’t the case here, but he’ll likely stick to his usual style. Bracing myself to be disappointed again in this regard.

Have they confirmed who’d be directing the photography?

rocknroll41 said:

dj720 said:

IMO Interstellar proved he’s capable of adapting to film what would usually work best if it stuck to the written word. Considering that, I believe this adaption will be amazing. I have high hopes.

The emotional undercurrent in Tenet was non-existent, and a bit inaccessible on repeat watches of Oppenheimer. I hope that isn’t the case here, but he’ll likely stick to his usual style. Bracing myself to be disappointed again in this regard.

Have they confirmed who’d be directing the photography?

This person: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoyte_van_Hoytema

Awesome! Love everything he’s done so far. Nope (2022) had pretty great visuals.

I see there’s no mention here of ‘O Brother, where art thou?’ (2000) which is loosely based on Homer’s Odyssey.

stretch009 said:

I see there’s no mention here of ‘O Brother, where art thou?’ (2000) which is loosely based on Homer’s Odyssey.

I’d also like to point out the irony that ‘O Brother, where art thou?’ was the very first movie to be color-timed digitally and Nolan is now practically the only director who still insists upon color-timing their films photochemically.