The Odyssey | Benny Safdie joins cast of Christopher Nolan’s opus

Benny Safdie in Oppenheimer
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Having appeared in Oppenheimer, Benny Safdie is working with Christopher Nolan again in the latter’s upcoming epic, The Odyssey.


It says a great deal about the anticipation surrounding Christopher Nolan’s latest film, The Odyssey, that respected Hollywood trade outlets are speculating over which specific Mediterranean islands the director is likely to film on.

Will he film on the Egadi archipelago, or perhaps the Eiolian islands? Variety's sources have suggested they’re potential locations, as is Favignana in Sicily.

Islands aside, there’s the casting to think about. The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Benny Safdie, a talented filmmaker and director, is again teaming with Nolan on his new opus. Safdie, you may recall, played the likeably brusque physicist Edward Teller in 2023’s Oppenheimer; his casting in The Odyssey means he’ll be joining the likes of Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Anne Hathaway and Charlize Theron in the ensemble.

It was also announced a couple of days ago that Jon Bernthal has also been added to The Odyssey’s line-up. Who will play Odysseus, the king whose eventful, 10-year journey home was laid out in Homer’s epic poem? Who will play Penelope, his wife, or the cyclops, Polyphemus? At this stage, we can only speculate.

All we know at present is that it’s a “mythic action epic shot across the world using brand new IMAX technology” which “brings Homer’s foundational saga to IMAX film screens for the first time.” That’s Universal’s official bit of marketing blurb from a few weeks back.

Filming should be currently underway, with locations taking in Morocco and the UK as well as some of those picturesque Mediterranean islands mentioned above. The Odyssey is said to be the most expensive film of Nolan’s career to day, with a budget of around $250m – that’s Dark Knight Rises money for an adaptation of an ancient Greek text.

It’s therefore something of a creative gamble for both director and studio. But then again, they managed to make a low-key drama about scientists and atomic bombs into a $1bn blockbuster, so Nolan has form when it comes to crafting unlikely hits.

The Odyssey is due for release in cinemas on the 17th July 2026.

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