Christopher Nolan Used 2 Million Feet of Film Shooting The Odyssey on Open Water

Director Christopher Nolan revealed his IMAX adaptation of Homer’s epic, starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, involved one of the most extensive and arduous 91-day shoots of his career, confirming over two million feet of film was used to capture the journey on the open sea.

November 15, 2025: Christopher Nolan is doubling down on his commitment to practical, large-format filmmaking for his ambitious adaptation of Homer’s classic poem, The Odyssey. The director has detailed the unprecedented scale of the production, set for a 2026 release, which he described as a “primal” cinematic undertaking.

Speaking to Empire magazine, Nolan revealed the staggering volume of material captured during the 91-day production schedule: “We shot over two million feet of film,” a record for the director, highlighting the film’s massive scale, which reportedly commands an estimated $250 million budget.

Embracing the Vicious Sea

The shoot involved extensive sequences on the open sea, requiring the cast—led by Matt Damon as the titular hero Odysseus—to confront real, shifting nautical conditions.

Christopher Nolan: “It’s pretty primal! I’ve been out on it for the last four months. We got the cast who play the crew of Odysseus’ ship out there on the real waves, in the real places. And yeah, it’s vast and terrifying and wonderful and benevolent, as the conditions shift.”

Nolan emphasized that filming in these raw, natural environments was crucial to the narrative, ensuring the film authentically captures the physical and emotional toll of Odysseus’s decade-long voyage home after the Trojan War.

“We really wanted to capture how hard those journeys would have been for people. And the leap of faith that was being made in an unmapped, uncharted world,” he explained.

An All-Star Cast for a Mythic Saga

The director believes his signature practical methods are essential for translating the 3,000-year-old epic for modern audiences. “By embracing the physicality of the real world in the making of the film, you do inform the telling of the story in interesting ways,” he added.

The Odyssey boasts one of the most stacked ensembles in recent memory, including:

• Matt Damon as Odysseus, the wily King of Ithaca.
• Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Odysseus’s faithful wife.
• Tom Holland as Telemachus, their son.
• Charlize Theron as the witch-goddess Circe.
• Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, and Jon Bernthal in undisclosed key roles.

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is scheduled for a global IMAX release on July 17, 2026.