When it launches next summer, Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Greek epic The Odyssey will be historic in more ways than one: it will be the first feature film ever shot entirely on IMAX film.
The Odyssey isn’t the first film to be shot entirely using IMAX hardware — that honor belongs to Avengers: Infinity War — but it’s the first to do so while shooting on film, rather than digital. IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond announced the news during a press lunch as part of the Cannes film festival on Thursday, revealing that it began as a challenge from Nolan.
“Chris called me up and said, ‘If you can figure out how to solve the problems, I will make [Odyssey] 100 percent in IMAX.’ And that’s what we’re doing,” Gelfond told The Hollywood Reporter. “He forced us to rethink that side of our business, our film recorders, our film cameras.”
The new cameras are reportedly both lighter and 30 percent quieter. Gelfond says the company has also developed new film scanning and processing techniques to make it quicker and easier to watch footage back as it’s shot. For now the new cameras are exclusive to Nolan, but will be available to other directors after The Odyssey wraps production.
Nolan has been one of IMAX’s biggest proponents ever since he used the cameras to shoot some of The Dark Knight’s action scenes in 2008. He’s used IMAX cameras in every film since, with 2023’s Oppenheimer the first film to use black-and-white 65mm film in IMAX, which required both modifying the IMAX cameras and developing new film stock with Kodak. That film’s cinematographer, Hoyte van Hoytema, is also shooting The Odyssey.
