John Leguizamo was in Miami, Fla., on Friday, June 26, for the photo call that launched The Odyssey press tour. Matt Damon joined him, and the pair posed in front of a giant Trojan horse statue as the film moved into its publicity run.
Miami and the Trojan horse
The photo call did more than supply a publicity image. It put John Leguizamo, who will portray Eumaeus in The Odyssey, in the first visible push for a film that is headed to theaters on July 17.
Matt Damon stars as Odysseus, and Leguizamo’s role gives the story one of the epic’s key supporting figures. That matters because the cast is not being introduced as a generic ensemble; it is being introduced through the characters audiences will actually meet on screen.
Matt Damon on the locations
Matt Damon tied the film’s scale to the places where it was shot. Speaking to GQ, he said, "I showed up on these locations was was like, Who f–king thought you could shoot a movie here?" He added, "It’s just so much bigger—it’s like surging a bigger wave."
He followed that with, "A wave that’s twice the size isn’t twice as powerful." Then: "It’s exponentially more powerful." The line fits a production that is being described as a mythic action epic shot across the world and set to bring Homer’s foundational saga to IMAX screens for the first time.
Christopher Nolan’s July 17 release
The July 17 release date gives the press tour a short runway. With Tom Holland as Telemachus, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Charlize Theron as Calypso, and Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya, Jon Bernthal, Himesh Patel, and Mia Goth also in the cast, the Miami stop is the opening move, not a stray appearance.
For now, the useful takeaway is simple: Leguizamo is no longer just attached to The Odyssey on paper. He is already out front with Damon, and the campaign is now in motion toward theaters.
