By Rollo Ross
NEW YORK, July 5 (Reuters) – Filmmaker Christopher Nolan follows up his Oscar-winning blockbuster “Oppenheimer” with “The Odyssey,” an adaptation of Homer’s epic ancient Greek poem. The Universal Pictures movie starring Matt Damon as the heroic king Odysseus will debut in cinemas on July 17.
In an interview with Reuters, Nolan discussed how he approached the sweeping story and discovered a way to adapt it from text to screen. Below are excerpts edited for length and clarity.
Q: I don’t think many people understand how much of a Herculean task making this film must have been. Why did you want to do this?
Nolan: “I enjoy adaptation very much. I enjoyed adapting the screenplay for ‘Oppenheimer’ from a 700-page, very academic book into a movie.
With Homer, “It’s challenging.”
“Once I sort of figured out that, for me, when you look at the text of the poem, it (has) really incredible payoffs. But the set-ups that a movie requires aren’t there in an epic poem because his audience is familiar with the elements. So when Odysseus encounters Argos near the end of the poem, you know, his faithful hunting dog … his audience knows it’s coming. For us, we have to set that up. Once I sort of started to figure out that, okay, you have to take some liberties with it, you’ve got to move some things around in order to try and get across the impression that you had from experiencing the poem, you know, that’s when things started to gain momentum.”
Q: Do you hope to sort of educate people by making this film?
Nolan: “I think educate is a very scary word for somebody putting a giant film out there. We want to entertain people.
“For me, we’re making the film for people who know nothing about Homer and this epic poem, and we make it for people who are very interested in that world and love it. You have to make it work for everybody.
“But I’m no stranger to that sort of thing. When we did ‘The Dark Knight’ trilogy, you know, we’re making a film for people very passionate about the character, very knowledgeable about the comics, and we were also making it for people who would never open a comic book in their lives. It’s not entirely dissimilar.”
Q: Most people, when they read “The Odyssey,” or they see “The Odyssey,” it sort of lives rent-free in your head. How do you feel about the fact that your version is going to be in people’s heads who haven’t experienced it?
Nolan: “You try to be true to the spirit of it, and you’re trying to add something to it as well. You’re trying to add a little something to the conversation about what ‘The Odyssey’ represents. That cultural conversation has been going on for 3,000 years. So you’re hoping to add something to it the same way that with the character of Batman, for example. … It was 75 years of history at the time, comic book history. And we tried to add a little something to the character and build on what had come before and hopefully be remembered afterwards.”
Q: How are you relaxing after this?
Nolan: “A bit of a holiday I think is in order. Maybe not on a boat, I would say. I’ve done enough boats for a while.
“I’m actually excited to get the film out to the audience. For me, a film is not finished until the audience tells you what it is. I’m so nervous but excited to open the film, and then we’ll take a breath.”
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Mark Porter)
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