Oppenheimer - Updates Thread

The upcoming epic thriller based on J. Robert Oppenheimer, the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it.
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Christopher Nolan is returning to cinemas next year with Oppenheimer, and while the trailer and early images were presented entirely in black-and-white, Total Film can reveal that the upcoming movie will also feature sequences in color. The use of black-and-white harks back to Nolan’s earliest films: microbudget debut Following and breakout hit Memento, the latter featuring approximately a quarter in black-and-white.

"I very much loved the structural assistance and the aesthetic charge of shifting between color and black and white that I had on Memento,” recalls Nolan in Total Film’s upcoming 2023 Preview issue. "I’d always been looking for a reason to go back to that. And in the case of Oppenheimer and the way in which we tell this story, it’s very subjectively [told], but also with a more objective story strand that intertwines with that. It was really the perfect time to go back to that device that I loved so much."

Memento was shot on 35mm anamorphic, but after shooting pioneering sequences of The Dark Knight on IMAX cameras, Nolan has been a champion of large-format film. The challenge here being: no one had ever shot on large-format black-and-white film before. "So we challenged the people at Kodak photochem to make this work for us," says Nolan. "And they stepped up. For the first time ever, we were able to shoot IMAX film in black-and-white. And the results were thrilling and extraordinary. As soon as Hoyte [van Hoytema, Nolan cinematographer since Interstellar] and I saw the first tests come in, we just knew that this was a format that we were immediately in love with."

"I think recreating the Trinity test [the first nuclear weapon detonation, in New Mexico] without the use of computer graphics, was a huge challenge to take on," explains Nolan in Total Film’s upcoming 2023 Preview issue. "Andrew Jackson – my visual effects supervisor, I got him on board early on – was looking at how we could do a lot of the visual elements of the film practically, from representing quantum dynamics and quantum physics to the Trinity test itself, to recreating, with my team, Los Alamos up on a mesa in New Mexico in extraordinary weather, a lot of which was needed for the film, in terms of the very harsh conditions out there – there were huge practical challenges."

Forget any preconceived notions you might have about a historical biopic. "It’s a story of immense scope and scale," says Nolan. "And one of the most challenging projects I’ve ever taken on in terms of the scale of it, and in terms of encountering the breadth of Oppenheimer’s story. There were big, logistical challenges, big practical challenges. But I had an extraordinary crew, and they really stepped up. It will be a while before we’re finished. But certainly as I watch the results come in, and as I’m putting the film together, I’m thrilled with what my team has been able to achieve.”

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https://apnews.com/article/entertainmen ... 5d0f725864
Christopher Nolan is ready to show the world the first full-length trailer for his new epic “ Oppenheimer ” and he’s doing so in the splashiest way possible: With an exclusive IMAX spot in front of “Avatar: The Way of Water.”

The “Oppenheimer” trailer will debut globally on IMAX screens playing the “Avatar” sequel, which begins its theatrical run Thursday. It will not be made available online and is distinct from the trailer that will show on non-IMAX screens.

Nolan’s film, about the enigmatic, Harvard-educated theoretical physicist who helped develop the first atomic bomb, is based on Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer,” and stars Cillian Murphy in the title role. The thriller explores the paradox of the man who infamously called himself the “destroyer of worlds.”

“The immersive quality of IMAX is massively important in transporting the audience into the mind and experience of this person who forever altered our world,” Nolan said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The star-studded cast includes Emily Blunt as Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer, his wife, a biologist and botanist, Matt Damon as Manhattan Project director General Leslie Groves Jr. and Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, a founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Rami Malek, Florence Pugh, Benny Safdie, Michael Angarano, Josh Hartnett and Kenneth Branagh are also among the large ensemble.

Nolan and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (who collaborated on “Dunkirk,” “Tenet” and “Interstellar”) used a combination of IMAX 65mm and 65mm large format film to shoot the film, which also boasts the first ever use of IMAX black and white analog photography for some sections.

In an interview with Total Film magazine this week, Nolan said that they recreated the Trinity test, the first successful detonation of a nuclear weapon, without the use of CGI. He also said it’s one of the most challenging projects he’s ever undertaken.

Universal Pictures plans to release “Oppenheimer” exclusively in theaters on July 21.

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EOLB wrote:
April 25th, 2023, 10:34 am
Trailer screencap from USA Today Summer preview:

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