Audiences worldwide are bracing for impact as the release of Christopher Nolan‘s highly anticipated new film Oppenheimer draws ever nearer, with a new featurette having been released showcasing the film’s stacked cast. The acclaimed director’s first film since 2020’s Tenet, Oppenheimer brings together an all star cast featuring the likes of Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, and Cillian Murphy as its titular theoretical physicist. Famed for his work leading The Manhattan Project during the Second World War, the film chronicles the scientist’s endeavor to develop the world’s first atomic bomb.
The film adapts Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Martin Sherwin and Kai Bird, to tell the story of the creation of the world’s deadliest weapon, as its creator grapples with the moral complexities of his work. The newly released featurette highlights a clip from the film in which the decision is made to test the weapon, despite uncertainty regarding whether doing so could set the atmosphere alight, effectively ending the world. With the film showcasing such a momentous event in the history of humankind, much research was done by the cast into the real-life stories of their characters, so much so that Nolan said he “was there on set every day surrounded by a team of actors who knew more than I did about what was going on from their point of view.”
A blockbuster auteur, Nolan has established himself as one of Hollywood’s leading directors, working on films such as Inception, Dunkirk, and The Dark Knight Trilogy, with his work bringing in more than $5 billion globally at the box office, and earning him 11 Oscars from 36 nominations, including two Best Picture nominations. It is no surprise then, that actors are eager to work with the cinematic titan, as Blunt remarks in the featurette that “if Chris Nolan calls you and says that he would like to meet with you, I don’t care what it is”, with Pugh adding “you’d be mad to say no.” The upcoming project is expected to be no different, with Benny Safdie, who appears in the film as Edward Teller, calling Oppenheimer Nolan‘s “best movie by far.” Downey Jr. said that “from the second I read the script, I knew that he had a very acute vision, and if he were able to render that vision, this film would be a masterpiece.”
Epic Visuals for an Epic Story
The movie is set to be a visual treat on scale with the epic nature of its story, with the whole film having been shot on IMAX, a medium usually reserved for large-scale action blockbusters. The IMAX reel of the film is reported to weigh over 600 lbs and stretch a distance of over 11 miles, with Nolan saying it was so long it almost didn’t fit on IMAX film projectors.
Oppenheimer hits theaters on July 21. Check out the new behind-the-scenes featurette below:
via Collider