The one decision that kept The Odyssey from running much longer
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey was set to run even longer—until one unexpected snag forced a ruthless trim. The on-set purist went all-in, but a single factor tightened the epic’s runtime.
Let’s be honest, when Christopher Nolan sets his sights on something, he never does things by halves. Bloke built half of Surrey for Dunkirk, crashed a real Boeing for Tenet, you know the type of thing. Now, with The Odyssey—his full-blown Greek epic coming this July—he’s gone and shot the entire thing on IMAX, which, fair warning, comes with a very specific catch. Here’s where it gets nerdy.
The Unexpected IMAX Dilemma
Nolan apparently wanted his retelling of Homer to clock in at over three hours, which is no surprise if you’ve sat through, say, Interstellar (which I enjoyed, but let’s not pretend it’s succinct). The final runtime? Two hours and fifty-two minutes—so just shy of a full bladder-test.
Why the compromise? Turns out, you physically can’t run an IMAX 70mm print for more than about 165 minutes, even if you’re Christopher Nolan. Put simply: the actual reel platters that hold the IMAX film are only so big. If you want to go longer, you’d need to haul in a whole new projection system.
Nolan had this to say about it on Letterboxd, after being pulled into the booth by IMAX’s David Keighley:
'Over the years, I’d challenged him to enlarge the platters or come up with a clip system to hold the film end when it got a bit bigger than the platter.'
But, as he admitted, that would mean rebuilding the entire set-up for every cinema showing the film the proper way—which, fair enough, even the mighty Nolan couldn’t swing.
Snipping Out a Mini-Movie’s Worth of Footage
What this means in practice: loads of material hit the cutting-room floor. Apparently, Nolan thought it was a nightmare choosing what to lose. He told editor Jennifer Lane:
'If it doesn’t serve the story, it has to go.'
That’s properly brutal if you’ve just risked gout trekking up Greek islands lugging IMAX cameras, only to bin swathes of it for the sake of technicality.
The Basics: What You’re Getting
- Release Date: 17 July 2026
- Main Cast: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, plus others they’re keeping under wraps
- Official Runtime: 2h 52min
- Full IMAX Run: Yes—first time for Nolan
- Post-Credits: If you don’t see it in IMAX, apparently there’s a bit extra tacked on after the credits
- Nolan’s Milestone: His first-ever songwriting credit features somewhere in the film (not a typo)
Oh, and for you awards-tracker types: this is Nolan’s first shot at a songwriting credit, on top of directing, so expect the campaign to lean heavily on that ‘multi-talented’ angle.
There it is—Nolan once again making the most of his toys, then running up against the laws of physics (and projection), and having to make the hard calls in the edit suite.