Christopher Nolan reveals 2 million feet of film used for epic movie adaptation as world gets first look at The Odyssey

Christopher Nolan has revealed that he used more than 2 million ft of film for his forthcoming adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey. The film, now in post-production, completed shooting in August. Speaking to Empire magazine, Nolan said: “I’ve been out on [the sea] for the last four months. We got the cast who play the crew of Odysseus’s ship out there on the real waves, in the real places … 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 added: “We shot over 2 million ft of film.”

Shot entirely on Imax

The production was filmed fully in the large-format Imax system, which requires far more film than standard 35mm. Indepth Cine estimates that Imax cameras run through 337ft of 65mm film per minute, compared to 90ft on 35mm. Based on this, Nolan is thought to have recorded around 100 hours of raw footage – a lower amount than some recent large-scale shoots. Editor Vashi Nedomanski has noted that Mad Max: Fury Road produced about 480 hours, while Gone Girl reached 500 hours.

Why Nolan chose the ‘Odyssey’

Nolan explained that he was drawn to the project because of a gap he saw in modern cinema. He had previously been linked to another Homeric epic, Troy, over twenty years ago.

“As a film-maker, you’re looking for gaps in cinematic culture, things that haven’t been done before,” Nolan was quoted as saying by The Guradian. “And what I saw is that all of this great mythological cinematic work that I had grown up with – Ray Harryhausen movies and other things – I’d never seen that done with the sort of weight and credibility that an A-budget and a big Hollywood, Imax production could do.”

He added that filming in real locations influenced the storytelling: “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. Because you’re confronted on a daily basis by the world pushing back at you.”

Matt Damon praises the experience

Matt Damon, who plays Odysseus, described working with Nolan as a career highlight.

“I can say, without hyperbole, that it was the best experience of my career … I saw the [Trojan] horse on the beach and I was just like, ‘F**k’. It was just so cool.”

Release in 2026

The film also stars Tom Holland as Telemachus and is scheduled for release in July 2026.