Q. What made you choose India as a stop on The Odyssey press tour?
A. I first came to Mumbai years ago brought by a friend of mine to do a conference about the future of film and I met a lot of filmmakers and really got to know a little bit about the film culture here. I've never been anywhere in the world with an appreciation of what movies can be or what they should be for audiences.
Christopher Nolan while shooting The Odyssey. Photo: Christopher Nolan/Instagram
To me, it seemed crazy that we wouldn't be bringing our films here to premiere them for Mumbai audiences and absolutely thrilled to do this. We actually intended to come with Tenet originally because we filmed in Mumbai but we couldn't because of the pandemic. So finally we have been able to actually. It's a thrill. We wanted to do this for years.
Q. You have a huge fan following in India. What do you think has contributed to that connection?
A. I just like to think that films are a universal language. It's one of the things I most enjoy about working on large-scale films is you get to take them around the world and you get to connect with different cultures all across the world. I think when films really connect, when they have universal and sort of timeless themes, as I hope The Odyssey does, it's wonderful how it kind of brings us together.
And for us to go on the road and travel and come here, it's pretty thrilling to come to a completely different place and find commonality and entertainment, laughter, love and tears together in a movie theatre. It's what the movies are all about. So this is the ultimate kind of expression for us. It's been really thrilling to see our films in the past connect with Indian audiences.
Matt Damon in The Odyssey. Photo: Screen-grab/trailer video
Q. When adapting a story with no definitive author, does that feel creatively liberating or does it come with an even greater sense of responsibility?
A. I certainly wasn't worried that Homer, whoever or whatever they were, has plenty of representatives who feel they know exactly what was intended. So, anytime you take on a piece of literature that's known and beloved by so many people, and this is a story that's fascinated generation after generation for 3,000 years, a lot of different people have a lot of different ideas of what it's going to be like.
But for me, like when Emma (Emma Thomas, producer) and I were doing The Dark Knight films and we were working on a beloved character like Batman, we sort of realised that we just had to make the best film we could and put a strong interpretation. I think people who love the piece of literature, in this case The Odyssey, hopefully they enjoy the respect that we're showing to the original source by making as good a film as we know how to make.
Photo: Christopher Nolan/Instagram
Q. Did you have a background in literature?
A. I studied literature at university but not very well. So I don't really have much of a literature background, but I do on paper. (Laughs.)
Q. How was your experience working in India?
A. I've had two experiences working in India, one in Jodhpur and the other in Mumbai. It was fabulous, certainly for somebody coming with fresh eyes to this city. As a filmmaker, every corner of the city has something, be it beauty or a texture, to be photographed. It was such a pleasure to engage with local crews, including assistant directors, who were fantastic. Moreover, I was shooting in IMAX at that time.
Anne Hathaway in The Odyssey. Photo: Screen-grab/trailer video
Q. Tell us about shooting The Odyssey entirely in IMAX.
A. On this film, we shot IMAX for the entire movie, which we weren't able to do on any of the earlier films because we didn't have a way of silencing the cameras. So on this film, for the first time, we had this blimping system where one could put the camera into this box and it was quiet enough that we could shoot these guys performing their most dramatic scenes. So the entire film is on IMAX.
(Photos: Christopher Nolan Instagram & Screen-grab from trailer video)