An absolute nightmare: Christopher Nolan opens up about filming The Odyssey

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is among the most awaited films of the year. To build up the hype even more, Nolan gave an exclusive sneak peak at the recent CinemaCon. However, amidst the craze, at the event, the director expressed how the making of it was an “absolute nightmare” for him.

Nolan’s The Odyssey stuns at CinemaCon where he reveals how the shooting was a nightmare

Nolan is renowned for his mind-boggling storylines and stupendous action scenes. Following his Oscar-winning film Oppenheimer, The Odyssey lands as the next big project. At CinemaCon 2026, held from April 13 to 16, theatre owners got an exclusive first look at this upcoming 2027 film. The director unveiled an extended clip from The Odyssey featuring the arrival of a Trojan Horse, building higher anticipation for the film’s theatrical release. 

After the clip ended, at the very event, Nolan got up to the stage and described his experience of making the movie. He said, “This has been an absolute nightmare to film — but in all the right ways. We had an amazing time. [Matt Damon] was there on the boats, up the mountains, in the caves, in the beating sunshine, sideways rain, wind. You’ll be pleased to know how difficult it was. It was meant to be; that’s the nature of this story.”

This film is the first motion picture to be shot entirely on IMAX 70mm cameras for the immersive out-of-the-box experience. Shooting an entire film in IMAX had always been the auteur’s dream.

The director said, “As a boy, all I wanted to do was tell large-scale [stories] using that technology, putting the audience into the world and I spent many, many years trying to bring that to fruition, starting with The Dark Knight, back when I was in my 30s. We shot the action sequences [in Imax], but we were never able to shoot the entire film. My crew did an incredible job figuring out how to do this for the first time.”

Nolan also appreciated the crew and mentioned how incredible Matt Damon was in the film. He said, “He was an incredible leader for us. He was just there out on the boats, up the mountains, in the caves, in beating sunshine, in sideways rain and wind, so many different places that we went to.”

Nolan concluded by saying, “We went all over the world to make this film because this is The Odyssey. You'll be pleased to hear how difficult it was for us because it's meant to be difficult. That's the nature of the story."

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