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The Odyssey is soon upon us, with Oscar-winning director Christopher Nolan adapting Homer’s ancient Greek epic into the blockbuster event of 2026.
The filmmaker’s follow up to Oppenheimer is not only the most expensive film of his career – with an estimated budget of $250 million – but also the first feature to be shot entirely on IMAX’s 70mm film cameras.
Prior to its worldwide release on Friday, Nolan has shared that he is hopeful for the future of filmmaking… without the use of AI.
A prominent critic of the continued push to rely on the technology, Nolan said that he is confident that younger generations will continue to reject “AI slop” and maintain a healthy appreciation for practical effects.
Nolan said he has noticed a “rapid wholesale dismissal of a supposedly foundational jump in technology” among younger filmmakers.
“So much energy has been expended on bringing in AI, but if you look at that generation’s reaction, they’re utterly rejecting it,” the director said in a new interview with The Telegraph, citing 21-year-old Backrooms director Kane Parsons and 26-year-old Obsession director Curry Barker as examples of a new generation embracing the practicalities of cinema.
Nolan also shared that his four children, whom he shares with his wife and longtime producing partner Emma Thomas, have an “immediate and harsh” reaction to AI.
“Their judgment of AI slop has been immediate and harsh,” he said. “They see it for what it is very quickly – and it’s much easier for them to identify it, because it grew out of an online world they know really well. And while that doesn’t mean that every aspect of the technology is useless or meaningless, in filmmaking it’s hitting at exactly the wrong time.”
He argued that “after years of driving towards heavily virtual environments, we’re seeing a renewed interest in more tactile, more real forms of storytelling.”
Nolan is well known for not using email and not owning a smartphone, preferring to keep his private life – like his filmmaking – grounded in physical reality.
His stance is currently at odds with an industry chasing digital trends and trying to embrace generative AI, amidst concerns over intellectual property rights protection and the existential threat artificial intelligence represents for the sanctity of human creation. It was one of the key issues behind the 2023 strike in Hollywood which shut down productions and cost studios billions of dollars.
Out on Friday, The Odyssey recounts Odysseus’ perilous quest to return home after the Trojan war. The epic is considered a cornerstone of Western literature and includes some of Ancient Greek mythology’s most famous stories, including the Sirens, the Trojan horse, and the battle with the Cyclops.
The film stars Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Robert Pattinson, Samantha Morton and Lupita Nyong’o, and has been the subject of several controversies prior to its release.
Elon Musk and other rightwing figures have bellyached over the casting of Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, a mythological figure considered the most beautiful woman in the world. There has also been online backlash over the use of modern English dialogue – something which Nolan reacted to by saying: “These conversations that happen before people see the film – they’re always irrelevant, because no one having them knows what the film actually is yet.”
The Odyssey is out on Friday 17 July. Stay tuned to Euronews Culture for our full review.