Christopher Nolan may make cinema history yet again with his Universal adaptation of “The Odyssey.”
One of the film‘s stunt performers, James Newman, said during the “Action for Everyone” podcast, as reported by Screenrant, that the feature is going to be “an epic of all epics” and is auteur Nolan “at his best.”
“The Odyssey” is Nolan’s reimagining of the iconic Greek epic about hero Odysseus who spends a decade trying to return home after fighting in the Trojan War. Matt Damon stars in the lead role. The film was announced in December 2024 as Nolan’s 13th feature. The ensemble cast includes a slew of reunions for Nolan in addition to working again with Damon, including Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Elliot Page, and Benny Safdie. Tom Holland, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, Mia Goth, Jon Bernthal, and John Leguizamo also star.
“They’re never going to make a movie like this again,” stunt performer Newman said. “I think it’s going to be an epic of all epics. It’s going to be Nolan at his best. No holds barred.”
That means that the battle sequences are even more bloody, and the locations are even more daring places to shoot.
“He definitely fights a battle that a lot of people aren’t fighting,” Newman said of Nolan’s approach to directing. “The coordinator came to us with scout pictures of locations, and it’s just all over Europe because Odysseus’ journey is crazy, it’s like 10 years long. They found locations and Nolan would go like, ‘OK, this cave, has anyone ever filmed here before?’ And the local guy is like, ‘No.’ [Nolan] is like, ‘OK, great, we’re going to film here.’ This untouched place. He wants to be the first person there to do it, he wants to feel like no one has ever touched ground here. And every location is a hike.”
One location, which Newman believed to be Odysseus’ home in the film, is a two kilometer hike on an incline to even reach. And Newman also hinted that actors Damon and Holland have a slew of impressive stunts onscreen as well.
“I had the opportunity to make some action with a talented group of people for the film and also had the opportunity to train Matt Damon and Tom Holland for the film. All the rumors about Tom being physically able are so true. He can literally do anything. He should get every physical role possible,” Newman said. “With Tom, he’s obviously more athletic and he’s younger so he’s going to almost be a younger version of Odysseus.”
As for Damon’s Odysseus, Newman continued, “Matt definitely wanted to be more efficient because that’s the character. Odysseus, if anyone is familiar with that story, Odysseus is really the only war scene character along that journey. The guys he has with him have fought with him but Odysseus himself is like, ‘I’ve lived and breathed battle,’ and so that makes him more smart, and that’s why he’s so good. Matt definitely understood that and then we were trying to play that up as well. So he isn’t going to do flashy things.”
Actor Leguizamo said during MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Nolan still works like an independent filmmaker despite having a massive budget. “He’s got a crazy budget, it’s not small, but he runs [it] like an indie film because he’s not doing it by committee, he’s not doing it by what the studio says,” Leguizamo said. “He’s like an indie filmmaker but with crazy money.”
