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Next month, Christopher Nolan's latest epic, The Odyssey, will hit the big screen, but according to its lead star Matt Damon, it could be the last of its kind.
"It was a really weird movie for me personally in the sense that I had almost a nostalgic feeling the entire time I was making it, because it felt like the movies when I started working. And I know that that’s going away," said Damon in an interview with GQ. "I knew that this was the last chance I was going to have to do something like this."
Making a huge movie like The Odyssey is much more of a rarity these days, but the star feels that the direction the filmmaking industry is going means we may never see a project like it again. "I don’t think people are going to be given the resources to shoot movies that way for much longer," added Damon, who plays Odysseus in the movie.
The Odyssey, which wrapped filming in August 2025, was a huge production. Filming took place over 91 days in six countries across the world, including Morocco, Greece, and back in the US on the Universal lot. Nolan shot over 2 million feet of IMAX film. Damon recalls being shocked by the sites Nolan had picked out, which ranged from deserted castles to barren beaches in blistering heat. "I showed up on these locations and was like, Who fucking thought you could shoot a movie here?," said Damon.
Despite starring in Nolan's 2020 movie Tenet, even Robert Pattinson was thrown for a loop when he showed up to set. "I’ve never seen people look so exhausted," said Pattinson, "I mean, at the end of every day people were broken.” Tom Holland, who plays Odysseus's son Telemachus, had the same kind of experience. "I remember walking down this beach for half an hour, and I’m just seeing Greek soldier, Greek soldier, Greek boat, Greek soldier, the Trojan wars," said Holland. "And I’m saying to the PA: 'Where is the crew? I haven’t seen any evidence of a film set. This is more reminiscent of a reenactment than it is a film set.'"
However, Nolan has faith in his creation, which cost upwards of $250 million to make and is the first movie to be shot exclusively on IMAX cameras. “If you love movies, if you love Hollywood, the history of Hollywood, the history of movies, the thing that you understand in your bones is that what the audience wants is something new,” said Nolan. "They want something they don’t know they want. So the only sure thing is something that’s not a sure thing. So that’s the paradox. And it’s scary, and it’s scary for the people I work for, but that’s how you have to make movies. You have to risk it all on every project."
The Odyssey hits cinemas on July 17, 2026. For more, check out our ranking of the best Christopher Nolan movies, and keep up with movie release dates and new movies heading your way.
