Christopher Nolan Wraps Six-Month Shoot on The Odyssey Amid Controversy
According to CinemaDrame News Agency, filming has wrapped on Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, as confirmed by the film’s production designer, Samantha Englender. Production began six months ago and took the crew to locations across Italy, Malta, Greece, Scotland, Los Angeles, Iceland, Marrakesh, and finally Western Sahara.
The film tells the story of Odysseus and his ten-year journey from Troy to Ithaca in an effort to return home after the Trojan War. The cast includes Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Jon Bernthal, John Leguizamo, Samantha Morton, Himesh Patel, Elliot Page, Bill Irwin, Jesse Garcia, Cosmo Jarvis, Ryan Hurst, and Will Yun Lee.
Reported to have a budget of around $250 million, The Odyssey is the first film in history to be shot entirely with IMAX cameras. Hoyte van Hoytema, who previously collaborated with Nolan on Dunkirk, Tenet, and Oppenheimer, serves as cinematographer.
In recent weeks, production became embroiled in controversy when filming took place in Western Sahara, which the United Nations has designated a “self-governing territory” since 1963. While the region is not part of Morocco, Western governments, including the UK and the United States, have recently encouraged Morocco to annex it. Actor Javier Bardem criticized the choice to film there, saying: “The Moroccan occupiers have turned the interior into a tourist destination — and now a film location — with the constant aim of erasing the Sahrawi identity from the city.”
Spanish outlet El Diario reported this week that Bardem, along with fellow Spanish artists Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Fernando Colomo, Nathalie Poza, Juan Diego Botto, and Carolina Yuste, signed a FiSahara International Film Festival statement calling for production to be halted. The statement urged Universal, Syncopy, and Nolan to explain why filming took place in the interior of Western Sahara without the consent of the Sahrawi people. Nolan reportedly obtained permission only from Morocco, the occupying force.
Last month, it was announced that advance tickets for The Odyssey sold out in under 24 hours, with resale prices now reaching $1,000.
The Odyssey is scheduled to be released on July 17, 2026.
