One of my favorite classes in college was Greek mythology. So much fun, full of gorgeous imagery and incredible stories. One of my least favorite parts of the class was studying The Odyssey, the tale of Odysseus trying to return home to his wife Penelope after the Trojan War. It takes him a DECADE to get home, although to be fair, the bulk of those ten years were spent as Calypso’s lover and captive. So, arguably, he only spent three years trying to get home. Anyway, Christopher Nolan decided that The Odyssey would be his follow-up to winning the Oscar for Oppenheimer. The film will come out next July, but the first trailer dropped before Christmas.
That’s Matt Damon as Odysseus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Tom Holland as their son WhatsHisFace. The rest of the cast includes Zendaya (as the goddess Athena), Robert Pattinson as Antinous (one of Penelope’s suitors), Charlize Theron as Circe, Lupita Nyong’o as… unknown for now. Mia Goth, Elliot Page, Jon Bernthal, Cosmo Jarvis and many others are included in the cast. I’ll admit, I’m interested to see what Nolan does with the Sirens and the Cyclops. The whole thing is shot entirely on IMAX cameras as well. What do you think? I know the Greek history nerds are already mad about helmets and armor, and so be it. I’m fine with Nolan taking liberties with that kind of stuff, truly. What worries me is that Nolan doesn’t always have great instincts for casting, especially when it comes to women. Hathaway is a good choice for Penelope, but I’m worried about the other ladies.
Photos courtesy of ‘The Odyssey’/Universal/IMDB.
I’m excited for this. This is literally an epic story (maybe THE epic story) and I think Nolan can do justice to it.
It looks really underwhelming. Trailers are meant to stoke interest. This is kinda bland and does not make me want to rush out and see it.
Greek mythology and history nerd here (raising hand) and I am going in with an open mind. Looking forward to it.
His style is just so dark and serious/ dreary. I never picture the Greek myths as such drudgery.
Lol, son WhatsHisFace is Telemachus. And a good chunk of the story is his coming of age. There’s so much in The Odyssey that goes beyond “a journey home” that I don’t expect Nolan to capture much of it, but I’ll watch his film to see what does with it.
Oooh. Add me to the excited nerd list. Loaned my Emily Wilson translation to a friend and now I’m going to get it back and reread it before the film drops. That said, I wonder which translation he used as his script source…
Nolan has said he was inspired by Wilson’s translation. Translations are so interesting – they reflect the culture and time during which they were made. Fagles is poetic and cinematic, but kind of mushy and PC. I like Lattimore because he sticks closer to the language and construction of the original, but today’s readers might find him too academic. I think Wilson is taking too many liberties and making it her version of the epic, but that’s OK, too – nothing wrong with looking at things a different way. A friend of mine and I meet a couple times a week to read The Odyssey in the original Homeric Greek. Greek is my first language, so I have a sense of the vocabulary, but the grammar is a beast. Still, it’s fun to take deep dive into the work.
I suspect these people are too old to be playing the parts they’ve been cast to play.
Odysseus’s armour looks like a Batman costume, LOL.
Great prestige casting (except Damon).