Christopher Nolan has openly revealed his massive ambitions for his highly anticipated upcoming movie, The Odyssey, declaring that the project is designed to be the grandest scale production of his entire legendary career. The Oscar-winning filmmaker shared these insights during an in-depth 60 Minutes interview with correspondent Scott Pelley, offering a rare look behind the scenes of the groundbreaking production.
According to preview clips obtained by Variety, the visionary director emphasized that the sheer weight of the classic source material demanded an unprecedented approach to filmmaking.
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“In taking on ‘The Odyssey,’ it does become about scale,” Nolan explained. “It needed to be the biggest film that we had done. It needed to be challenging to all of us, because that’s the nature of the story.”
The intense physical demands of the production were made clear when Pelley reviewed a sequence featuring lead actor Matt Damon, who portrays Odysseus, steering a ship through incredibly turbulent, dangerous waters. “Looks like you nearly drowned Matt Damon,” Pelley observed during the segment. “We certainly put him through his paces,” Nolan replied with a laugh.
In a separate interview, Damon completely agreed with his director’s assessment of the grueling shoot, stating flatly, “It was the hardest movie I’ve ever done by far. Not even close.”
A Cinematic First: Shooting Entirely on 70mm IMAX Film
The upcoming 60 Minutes segment highlights the historic technical achievements of the production. Pelley explains in a voiceover that The Odyssey officially marks the first feature film in cinema history to be shot entirely on IMAX cameras.
The episode features Nolan demonstrating his famously hands-on post-production process, showing him physically cutting and assembling celluloid at one of the world’s few remaining specialized film laboratories. The segment also explores Nolan’s lifelong obsession with the large-scale format, tracking it back to a museum documentary he watched as a teenager.
Despite the logistical nightmares of using massive analog cameras, the episode notes that 70mm IMAX film offers up to three times the resolution of standard digital projection. This staggering visual superiority is precisely why Nolan continues to champion the format to keep analog filmmaking relevant in a digital world. The full 60 Minutes interview is scheduled to air this Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on CBS.