Christopher Nolan has been chasing the IMAX dream for nearly two decades, and with “The Odyssey,” he’s finally achieved it. The legendary filmmaker’s upcoming adaptation of Homer’s Greek epic is making cinematic history as the first narrative feature ever shot entirely with IMAX cameras—a milestone made possible by a heartwarming test involving a child reciting David Bowie lyrics.
A David Bowie Test That Changed Everything
The breakthrough came when cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema needed to prove that IMAX film cameras had finally evolved enough to capture intimate dialogue scenes. He shot test footage of a child reading the lyrics to David Bowie’s “Sound And Vision” and presented it to Nolan on an IMAX screen.
“It was very touching: that level of intimacy in both image and sound, fused together, projected in the theatre,” van Hoytema told Empire magazine.
Nolan’s reaction was immediate and definitive. “We never would have been able to get those shots before,” the director said, calling the results “electrifying.”
The footage demonstrated once and for all that IMAX cameras could now handle the delicate work of capturing whispered dialogue and nuanced performances—something that had been impossible with earlier generations of the notoriously loud cameras.
The Game-Changing ‘Blimp’ System
The key innovation that made this possible is a new IMAX film casing called a “blimp,” specifically designed to dramatically reduce the noise IMAX cameras produce during filming. Previously, these cameras were so loud they could only be used for action sequences and scenes where actors weren’t speaking directly into the camera at close range.
“The blimp system is a game-changer,” Nolan explained. “You can be shooting a foot from [an actor’s] face while they’re whispering and get usable sound. What that opens up are intimate moments of performance on the world’s most beautiful format.”
This technological advancement finally allows Nolan to achieve what he’s been building toward since 2008, when “The Dark Knight” became the first Hollywood film to utilize IMAX cameras for select action sequences. With each subsequent film, Nolan has increased his use of IMAX—”Interstellar,” “Dunkirk,” “Tenet,” and his 2023 Oscar-winning “Oppenheimer” all pushed the boundaries further.
“Oppenheimer” itself made history as the first film to use IMAX black-and-white 65mm film, a format that didn’t even exist until Nolan and van Hoytema worked with Kodak to create it.
Engineering New Possibilities
Van Hoytema, who has collaborated with Nolan on five films including “The Odyssey,” explained to Variety the challenges of creating that black-and-white IMAX stock for “Oppenheimer.”
“Black and white film doesn’t exist for 65 millimeters, so our first challenge was starting to talk to Kodak about if they could provide us with the necessary film stock that we needed for this film,” van Hoytema said. “We needed to re-engineer the cameras as well because those cameras have these pressure plates behind the film gates that are made out of metal and the backing is much thinner than color stock. The light would bleed back into the films creating all these artifacts.”
Van Hoytema won the Oscar for Best Cinematography for “Oppenheimer,” validating their innovative approach to film technology.
An Epic Scale of Production
Nolan previously revealed to Empire that he “shot over 2 million feet of film” during “The Odyssey’s” 91-day production earlier this year. According to Kodak, a foot of 65mm film costs approximately $1.50, which means the production used around $3 million worth of film stock alone—a staggering figure that underscores Nolan’s commitment to shooting on film in an increasingly digital age.
Why ‘The Odyssey’?
For his first entirely-IMAX narrative feature, Nolan chose one of Western civilization’s foundational stories. Homer’s epic tale of Odysseus’s ten-year journey home from the Trojan War has been adapted countless times, but never quite like this.
“As a filmmaker, you’re looking for gaps in cinematic culture, things that haven’t been done before,” Nolan told Empire about his choice to adapt the Greek epic. “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.”
Nolan grew up watching stop-motion legend Ray Harryhausen’s creature-filled mythological adventures like “Jason and the Argonauts” and “Clash of the Titans.” While those films captured imaginations for generations, they were constrained by the budgets and technology of their eras. Nolan sees an opportunity to bring that same sense of wonder to audiences with modern resources and the immersive power of IMAX.
An All-Star Ensemble
Matt Damon reunites with Nolan after “Interstellar” and “Oppenheimer” to headline as Odysseus, with Tom Holland playing his son Telemachus. The sprawling ensemble also includes Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, and Jon Bernthal.
This combination of A-list talent with Nolan’s technical ambition and Homer’s timeless story has generated enormous anticipation for what could be one of the most visually spectacular films ever made.
The Future of Cinema
Nolan’s achievement with “The Odyssey” represents more than just a technical milestone—it’s a statement about the future of theatrical cinema. At a time when streaming dominates entertainment consumption and many question the relevance of movie theaters, Nolan continues to create experiences that can only be fully appreciated on the biggest possible screen.
By making intimate human performances compatible with the grandest visual canvas available to filmmakers, Nolan and van Hoytema have opened new creative possibilities for cinema itself. Future filmmakers now have access to a format that can capture both the epic and the intimate without compromise.
And it all started with a child, a camera, and David Bowie’s “Sound And Vision”—proving once again that the most revolutionary breakthroughs often begin with simple, human moments.
“The Odyssey” opens in theaters nationwide on July 17, 2026, from Universal Pictures. It will be presented in IMAX, naturally.
