Christopher Nolan sat down for an interview with Channel 4’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy, where he dove into his modern take on The Odyssey and why people have the concept of it needing to be so formal 

     Guru-Murthy asked about Tom Holland’s now-infamous “dad” line, to which the actor responded “Because I wouldn't have even said ‘Father’ back in the day, would I? I would have been Greek, so it's no less correct,”

     Nolan also responded by stating the public has “cultural prejudice” when it comes to ancient worlds, and elevates them “because it’s old.” He continued:

“do away with some of those assumptions that aren’t based on anything logical,” and present “a consistent and accessible world around that that feels vital and credible and exciting to be in.”

“When you look at this world, when you look at the ancient world, people tend to view it in weird ways. There’s a lot of cultural prejudice. There’s a lot of elevating it because it’s old,” 

“When you go to the poem, what you find is something that is really earthy and grounded and accessible. So for me, in building the world of the film, when I talked to all the actors about it, I said, I just want to centre it on that and make it feel very fresh for modern audiences, and do away with some of those assumptions that aren’t based on anything logical. They’re just, as I say, cultural prejudices or things over time..

“Stylistically, aesthetically, people tend to look back to the Romantic era and art, a lot of the paintings where people aren’t wearing very much. They’ve got a little bedsheet wrapped around them, and a lot of classical architecture even though that wasn’t the architecture of the Mycenaean period.

“We went back to what’s in the archaeology, what does that tell us? And what gaps does that leave? What do we know about Homer’s time? How were things portrayed in the earliest possible portrayals of that? And looking at how do you create a consistent and accessible world around that that feels vital and credible and exciting to be in.”

     Christopher Nolan’s modern take on The Odyssey has been met with considerable criticism over the casting, modern dialogue, and other aspects of the film. 

     The trailer currently sits at 600k+ dislikes on YouTube, as the most disliked trailer of his career. Despite this, early projections and pre-sales, show a different narrative. Regardless of how you feel about the changes and modernization the filmmaker is taking, this movie is aiming to be one of the biggest of the summer, and likely the year.

     You can watch the full interview and latest trailer below.

https://youtu.be/2ZY-TTN4a8Q?si=LEOcExawptcCvkaZ

https://youtu.be/AyIZ9tiiN8I?si=6R7QvS3PqZjl5CwE

The Odyssey is an epic mythic action film directed by Christopher Nolan, adapted from Homer's foundational Greek poem. It follows King Odysseus (Matt Damon) on a grueling 10-year journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, where he must battle mythical monsters, powerful sea gods, and fate itself to reunite with his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and son Telemachus (Tom Holland)