What’s interesting is that a movie called The Return was just released which adapts the final part of The Odyssey, where Odysseus returns home after 20 years and has to win his wife back. As I understand it, that movie doesn’t adapt any of the supernatural elements, but it sounds like Nolan’s will. That said, since Nolan loves telling stories out of order, I bet he will still start the movie with Odysseus returning home, and have most of the adventure stuff told through flashbacks, with Odysseus acting as an “unreliable narrator,” of sorts.
I'm sure it'll be good cuz Nolan, but with people like Matt Damon, Tom Holland, and Zendaya, we are thrust out of the story at every turn via Hollywood. I wish he'd cast no names for films like this. But Oppenheimer was great and had lots of big names. Fingers crossed. Nolan and fantasy is a win.
I wouldn’t be shocked if that was part of the appeal to Nolan - especially since it’s only a short leap from recognizing that to imagining how you could do unreliable narrator, tall tales, psychological projection and the realization of denial stuff alongside it. Like… imagine if Nolan interspersed some moments to show that some of Odysseus’s brief, occasionally piratical prologues to the more famous adventures have some brief clips revealing him reveling in that part of his life to his current self’s shame.
The director's cut of Troy wasn't bad. Haven't seen an adaptation of the Odyssey for a long time, it's a great story with plenty of very cinematic moments. A Cyclops, a six headed monster, a maelstrom, Sirens, people turned into animals, there's a lot to work with
also - am I the only person prepared to admit that I thought the central character of Homer's Odyssey - was --- Homer ?
Yes it was. You are not going to spin a move that posits Achilles was undefeatable because the rest of the human race had not discovered jumping as somehow good.
I hope this won't be another movie where characters don't understand what shields are supposed to be for and how they work. Or do back-carrying of swords.
I’m most interested in how Nolan will do the visual effects. Generally I think he goes too far with the puritan lack of VFX (like in Dunkirk where there were like 1000 real extras on a beach - how hard would it have been to give a couple wide shots showing the true scale). I imagine they’ll be building Odysseus’ ship for real on the water. Will he go back to stop motion for the cyclops and the three headed beast? Will there be some forced perspective of people in suits? Will there be some miniature use for the temples, palaces, cities, etc? I’m less concerning in accuracy to the source material as I am someone giving a unique take on it. For all the idiosyncratic stuff in his films, each of them are meticulously made to the specifications of one man, which I’m always going to enjoy more than something watered down by too many cooks / studios.
If your looking for a great films about the Odyssey I'd recommend one of the same name, Nostos: The Return from 1989, no dialog at all but magnificently filmed with a great atmosphere to it, up on Youtube last time I looked.
I don’t hold the Nolan brothers in as high regard for their time manipulation antics as others do. It’s more a gimmick to me. My hunch is Chris saw the Odyssey episode of DuckTales and that’s mostly what he’s adapting here. So Tom Holland will play Telemachus and the time trickery - cross cutting two stories - whatever gimmick - will contrast T’s life and his father Odysseus’s played by Matt Damon. Nolans! Woo-hoo!
