Christopher Nolan Says The Odyssey Movie Will Run Shorter Than Oppenheimer
Christopher Nolan says the odyssey movie will run shorter than Oppenheimer, even as he describes the project as an epic film built to handle Homer’s story at full scale. That puts the runtime under three hours, after Oppenheimer reached 180 minutes.
“It’s an epic film, as the subject matter demands,” Nolan said. “But it is shorter.” For a director associated with long-form event movies, that is the clearest signal yet that this adaptation will stay large in scope without matching the length of his 2023 film.
Nolan on Odyssey length
The runtime comparison is the most practical takeaway for audiences watching how Nolan handles the material. Oppenheimer clocked in at 180 minutes, and Nolan’s comment places The Odyssey below that mark even though he is treating it as an epic rather than a compact drama.
That framing matters because the story itself follows Odysseus through trials and mythical encounters on his decade-long journey home to wife Penelope after the Trojan War. Nolan is not signaling a smaller canvas; he is signaling a tighter cut on a story that still has the scale of a major studio event.
Two million feet at sea
Last November, Nolan said he shot over two million feet of film during the 91-day shoot of The Odyssey. He also said much of the movie was shot at sea, which fits his own description of the production as “primal” and “vast and terrifying and wonderful and benevolent, as the conditions shift.”
“We got the cast who play the crew of Odysseus’ ship out there on the real waves, in the real places,” he said. “We really wanted to capture how hard those journeys would have been for people.” That approach suggests the film’s scale will come from location work and movement, not just running time.
The July 17 Imax start
Filming for The Odyssey was set to begin July 17 in Imax, and Nolan said there was “a massive amount of pressure” in taking on the project. He added that anyone taking on The Odyssey is taking on “the hopes and dreams of people for epic movies everywhere,” which is a blunt reminder that expectations around this title extend beyond the cast list.
The movie stars Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie, John Leguizamo, Elliot Page, Himesh Patel, Bill Irwin, Samantha Morton, Jesse Garcia, Will Yun Lee, Rafi Gavron, Shiloh Fernandez, and Mia Goth. Nolan’s bet is clear: keep the runtime below Oppenheimer while still making the scale feel bigger than most three-hour films can manage.
