Christopher Nolan’s next moviewill be an adaptation of Homer’s long-form poemThe Odyssey, and a recent update from the movie’s production indicates that it could be even more ambitious than his most recent award-winning blockbuster. The new movie will follow the source material, which is an extensive epic poem that chronicles the journey of the Greek hero Odysseus over the ten years it takes him to return home from the Trojan War. The journey sees him and his crew tangle with monsters, gods, and more nefarious men on their way home.
Christopher Nolan’s filmography is loaded with big-budget blockbusters and summer studio tent poles, and his name and his movies are always a topic of conversation come awards season. His most recent juggernaut,Oppenheimer, broke long-standing recordsand took down just about every major cinematic award show that occurred in 2023/2024. However, as awe-inspiring asOppenheimerwas, Christopher Nolan’sThe Odysseyhas one factor going for it that promises it will be even more ambitious.
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey Movie Must Avoid A Common Fantasy Mistake With Its Female Characters
Many fantasy movies have reduced their female characters to one-dimensional stereotypes, and Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey must avoid this mistake.
The Odyssey’s Reported Budget Is Significantly Bigger Than Oppenheimer’s
Nolan’s Success WithOppenheimerIs What Encouraged Such A Huge Budget
With a sprawling runtime, a lean on practical effects, including anon-CGI atomic bomb explosion, and a star-studded cast,Oppenheimercertainly made use of its lofty $100 million budget. However, with a box office return that approached $1 billion, that budget was certainly justified, and the success ofOppenheimer(along with the rest of his extensive history of big budget success) is really what paved the way for Nolan to get support for something as ambitious as a cinematic adaptation ofThe Odyssey.
Oppenheimergarnered 13 Oscar nominations at the 96th Academy Awards, and took home seven of them, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor.
The budget forThe Odysseywas recently revealed, andit weighed in at a massive $250 million, more than double the budget ofOppenheimer’s. While it isn’t the biggest budget that Nolan has ever worked with, only a few movies a year are ever granted a production budget as high as $250 million, and they’re typically franchise cornerstones or massive summer blockbusters.The Odysseywill fall into the latter category, as it is set to be released on July 17th, 2026.
How The Odyssey’s Budget Compares To Christopher Nolan’s Other Movies
Nolan Has A History Of Managing Massive Budgets
$250 million is a budget many times larger than most directors would ever dream of working with, but Nolan is a veteran at working with large-scale productions and sprawling stories loaded with talented casts. While true budget numbers can be tricky to pin down as the final totals are rarely announced, ever sinceBatman Begins,Nolan has largely been working with at least $100 million for each separate movie he’s directed. The previous high budget for him was on the epic conclusion to hisDark Knighttrilogy,The Dark Knight Rises, which has estimates ranging from $230 to $300 million.
2000
$9 million
$40 million
2002
$46 million
$113.8 million
2005
$150 million
$373.7 million
2006
$109.7 million
2008
$185 million
$1.006 billion
2010
$160 million
$839 million
2012
$250 million
$1.115 billion
2014
$165 million
$741.4 million
2017
$100 million
$530.4 million
2020
$205 million
$365.9 million
2023
$976.8 million
2026
Pending
The Odyssey’s whopping $250 million will represent one of, if not the highest amount of money that has ever been invested in a Christopher Nolan film. If nothing else, it shows a definitive trust in Nolan on behalf of the studio, asThe Odyssey’s incredible castwill command a large chunk of the budget on its own.It’s also a clear indication that Nolan intends to go big as far as the ambition of the project is concerned, which is a relief given the history and familiarity of the narrative he will tackle.
Why It Makes Sense For The Odyssey To Cost More Than Oppenheimer
The Narrative Is Loaded With Fantasy Elements That Will Require Heavy CGI
WhileOppenheimerrequired plenty of effort and detail to convincingly portray the world as it was in 1945, the story was relatively grounded and based on character work as opposed to action and spectacle (atomic bomb explosion notwithstanding). The enormous, star-studded cast likely ate up a large portion of the budget, which will again be the case forThe Odyssey, as mentioned. However,the story itself will require far more budgetthan that ofOppenheimer.
Odysseus' journey from Troy back to his home in Greece takes place over ten years, and Christopher Nolan will be granted (and take) plenty of runtime to tell the story the way he wants to. On top of that, the story is absolutely laden with supernatural elements like monsters, the ancient Greek gods, and of course seafaring adventure.To properly tell the story there will need to be copious CGI work done, even if Nolan continues to work heavily with practical effects, and that’s really where the budget will start to add up forThe Odyssey.
The Odyssey
Cast
The Odyssey is a 2026 film adaptation of Homer’s epic poem, chronicling Odysseus’s treacherous journey home from the Trojan War. The narrative explores his encounters with mythical creatures such as Polyphemus, the Sirens, and Circe, culminating in his reunion with his wife, Penelope.
