The Odyssey by Christopher Nolan: The movie was shot entirely on IMAX 70mm film, only 41
Director Christopher Nolan's film The Odyssey officially hit theaters - an adaptation of Homer's Odyssey, with Matt Damon playing the hero Odysseus, with a cast including Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Tom Holland and Lupita Nyong'o. But what makes this film a special event in the film world lies not only in the content, but in the way it was shot: this is the first feature film in history to be shot entirely with IMAX film cameras - the highest quality image format ever invented, but at the same time one of the rarest and most difficult to access cinema technologies today.
Nolan with Matt Damon as Odysseus and Zendaya as Athena on the set of The Odyssey. Melinda Sue Gordon—Universal Pictures
Why did Nolan choose to shoot the film entirely on film instead of digitally?
Christopher Nolan is famous for his loyalty to celluloid films through many previous works such as Dunkirk or Oppenheimer, but The Odyssey is the first time he pushed this philosophy to the maximum limit - filming the entire film, including dialogue scenes, with a 70mm IMAX camera. In an interview with CBS News' 60 Minutes, Nolan explained that he considers IMAX film to be "the highest quality image format ever invented," with the ability to record incredible sharpness and microscopic film grain when properly exposed and exposed - something he said "nothing can compare to." He also believes that celluloid film is "the closest technological analogue to human vision," especially in the way it captures colors, gray tones, blacks and whites, giving audiences an experience "as close as possible to the feeling of actually being at the scene." Previously, even in Oppenheimer - a film that was heavily promoted for using IMAX 70mm - Nolan was only able to film part of the scenes in this format, but most of the dialogue scenes still had to be switched to standard 65mm film, because the mechanical noise of the IMAX camera was too loud, easily reaching the live recording microphone. With The Odyssey, Nolan's technical team solved this problem by placing the cameras in specialized soundproof boxes, allowing the entire film - including long dialogue segments - to be shot in IMAX 70mm format without worrying about camera noise entering the scene.
What is IMAX 70mm and why is it so rare?
To understand why this is a big event, it's necessary to know a little about the technology behind it. IMAX 70mm film uses a 15-perf horizontal format instead of running vertically like regular 35mm or 65mm film, creating a frame with an area nearly 9 times larger than a standard 35mm film frame. The larger the frame area, the more detail, color depth and sharpness can be captured - this is why filmmakers consider IMAX film to be the pinnacle of image quality, surpassing even the highest resolution digital cameras available today.
But because of this unusually large format size, both 70mm IMAX cameras and projectors are extremely bulky, expensive and difficult to operate. The number of IMAX cameras suitable for filming feature films worldwide can be counted on the fingers of one hand, and the maintenance, transportation, and post-processing of this type of film requires special processes that very few studios still maintain. On the theater side, the situation is similar: a 70mm IMAX projector is the size of a small car, weighs tons, and is extremely expensive to install and maintain. During the past few decades, the wave of cinema digitization has caused the majority of theaters in the world to completely switch to digital projectors, resulting in the number of theaters still retaining 70mm film projector systems increasingly shrinking.
An entire "ecosystem" of formats just to show one movie
Because of the unique nature of technology, The Odyssey is not simply "shown in theaters" like regular movies, but is released in parallel in many different formats, each format brings a different visual experience: the original IMAX 70mm version with an aspect ratio of 1.43: 1 - the closest square size, filling the entire large IMAX screen; digital IMAX version with 1.90:1 ratio; 70mm non-IMAX version (not shown on the IMAX system but still uses large format film) with a ratio of 2.20:1; Standard 35mm version with 2.39:1 ratio; along with Dolby Vision digital versions and other premium large screen formats (Premium Large Format). In other words, the same movie but audiences in different theaters around the world are actually watching versions with different frames, details and even shot composition, depending on what equipment that theater has.
Only 45 theaters worldwide can properly screen the IMAX 70mm version
This is the most notable point: out of tens of thousands of cinemas operating globally, only about 45 theaters are equipped with true 70mm IMAX projectors, capable of showing the film in the original format that Nolan wanted. Of these, the US has 30 theaters, spread across the states of California (the largest, with 9 theaters), Texas, New York, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Tennessee. Canada has 9 more theaters, the remaining 6 theaters are scattered in England, Belgium, Czech Republic and Australia. In other words, the majority of the world's population - including in many developed countries - has absolutely no chance of seeing this film in the format the director worked hard to create, unless they are willing to travel hundreds, even thousands of kilometers to go to one of those few rare theaters.
There are only 45 theaters in the world that can screen IMAX 70mm format. This scarcity is also clearly reflected in ticket prices and the level of demand: tickets to see The Odyssey in IMAX 70mm format at most theaters cost over 30 USD, significantly higher than regular movie tickets, and many screenings sold out within a short time after going on sale, forcing some theaters to add additional screenings to meet demand. For movie lovers, "hunting for tickets" to watch the correct 70mm version has almost become a separate journey, no different from having to make travel plans just to sit in front of one of a few dozen rare screens in the world that can accurately recreate what Nolan shot.
A gamble on the future of physical cinema
As the film industry increasingly leans toward digital production and projection because it's lower cost and easier to operate, Nolan's decision to bet his entire The Odyssey on a film technology that's bulky, expensive, and increasingly rare for theaters to screen can be seen as a clear statement about the value of the traditional cinematic experience. When asked about the dwindling number of theaters capable of 70mm projection, Nolan acknowledged that "theaters like this are part of history," but expressed his belief that they "are also part of the future," and that the collective moviegoing experience - "when you watch a comedy in a room full of laughing people" - will continue to play a central role in popular culture, despite the rise of home viewing platforms.
Matt Damon as Odysseus and Himesh Patel as Eurylochus in The Odyssey. Melinda Sue Gordon—Universal Pictures Although only a very small part of the global audience has the opportunity to experience The Odyssey the way it was originally envisioned, this event also partly shows: in an era where everything can be viewed on a phone, there is still a group of audiences willing to line up, book tickets months in advance, even fly halfway around the world, just to sit in the darkness of one of those 45 rare theaters and look up at a truly big screen.