How Christopher Nolan Felt About Those Early Odyssey Rumors

After the success of "Oppenheimer" in 2023, filmmaker Christopher Nolan moved on to his next project: a lengthy, big-budget rendition of "The Odyssey." For a while, actual information about the project was scant, with only a few images and details being given to the press. The first trailer for "The Odyssey" eventually released in theaters with James Cameron's "Avatar: Fire and Ash" in December 2025, finally allowing audiences to see some actual footage from the film. Perhaps fittingly, the promo is basically a speedrun of the end of "The Iliad," with Greek soldiers being brought into Troy via the Trojan Horse, only to spring an attack and win the Trojan War. Odyssey (Matt Damon) is present, of course, and he is destined to become very lost on his return home to Ithaca.

While Nolan was developing "The Odyssey," however, he kept the project close to his chest. Nolan's films tend to be widely celebrated by Hollywood, audiences, and critics alike, so he has to remain incredibly secretive as to not allow any spoilers to leak to the public. This is immensely difficult, as his productions tend to be enormous, sporting giant casts of well-known actors. Nolan seems to have become very adept at discretion, however, as facts about his movies are typically only released by publicists. Until publicists and advertisers release footage from his films, Nolan's many fans can only feed themselves on rumors and conjecture.

Many of these rumors are, of course, based wholly in fantasy. Speaking to Empire Magazine, Nolan talked about "The Odyssey" and addressed some of the bizarre rumors surrounding his movie, some of which were completely baffling. No, he was not working on a vampire movie or a remake of John Badham's 1983 helicopter thriller "Blue Thunder" (as amusing as he found those rumors).

"Blue Thunder" was only a modest hit when it was released in 1983 and is only remembered by people of a very specific age. Hence, it would be a little baffling for Nolan to remake something without that much cultural clout. Then again, the little-seen 1974 B-movie "Gone in 60 Seconds" got a high-profile Hollywood remake in 2000, so what do I know? A "Blue Thunder" remake was also only one of the many rumors about Nolan's next directorial effort. Similarly, if you heard that Nolan was developing a 1920s-set vampire movie, that, too, was just a rumor, as was the tantalizing claim that Nolan was making a feature film adaptation of the famed cult 1960s TV series "The Prisoner." That would have been awesome, no doubt, but it was not on his radar. 

How do these rumors get started? Who can say? Even Nolan has no idea. He doesn't hate the rumors, of course, but he is a little confused by some of them. Still, he wants fans to have their fun. Here's what he had to say about the "Blue Thunder" rumor in particular:

"I think people just invent stuff. [...] I have no idea where that comes from. That's the disadvantage of never telling people what we're doing: people are free to invent it for months and months. But, you know, that's part of the fun."

With "The Odyssey" due to open in theaters on July 17, 2026, Nolan may already be planning his next project. Let's get the rumor mill started early this time. Nolan's next movie is going to be, uh, a remake of Stuart Gordon's "Robot Jox."