About this episode

Christopher Nolan discusses his adaptation of The Odyssey for a modern audience and the innovative techniques used in the film.

The topic: Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is turning out to be the event of the summer, with screenings selling out at theaters a year in advance. Nolan shares how he adapted the Greek epic for a modern audience. On what makes a successful adaptation: “If somebody watching the film who read the poem in high school or something, who doesn’t know it that well but knows it pretty well — if that person feels that my additions or my allusions actually were from the poem, then I think I've succeeded.” The dialogue: “I’m not having the actors speak with mid-Atlantic or some British accents the way Hollywood in the 50s or 60s often did… We want it to be more accessible than that.” The sound and score: “[Ludwig Göransson] is trying to create a soundscape that is as much a part of the sense of place as the sound effects. So in a way we’re trying to blur the boundaries completely between music and sound effects.” New technology: “This blimping system, it’s essentially a high-tech box you put the [70MM IMAX] camera in and it silences it. And so for the first time ever, we could do the entire film that…

People in this episode

Guest: Christopher Nolan

Topics covered

• film adaptation
• Greek epic
• modern storytelling
• sound design
• technology in film

Keywords

• Christopher Nolan
• The Odyssey
• film adaptation
• soundscape
• IMAX technology

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Odyssey

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