Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated epic The Odyssey is set to make its worldwide theatrical debut on 17 July, with audiences in Bangladesh also getting the chance to watch the film on the same day at Star Cineplex.
The country’s leading multiplex chain has scheduled 49 shows across its nine branches on opening day, underscoring the immense anticipation surrounding Nolan’s latest cinematic spectacle.
The excitement has already translated into record-breaking ticket sales. Within just three hours of advance bookings opening on Wednesday, The Odyssey secured a place among the top five biggest opening-day advance booking performers of the year, signalling enormous global demand for the film even before its release.
Based on Homer’s nearly 3,000-year-old Greek epic, The Odyssey follows the perilous journey of the legendary warrior Odysseus as he attempts to return to his kingdom of Ithaca after the Trojan War. Battling treacherous seas, mythical creatures, mysterious islands and the wrath of the gods, his decades-long voyage home forms the heart of one of history’s greatest literary works.
Matt Damon stars as Odysseus, while Tom Holland plays his son, Telemachus, and Anne Hathaway appears as Penelope. The star-studded ensemble also includes Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Mia Goth, Benny Safdie and Jon Bernthal.
The Oscar-winning British filmmaker behind The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Interstellar and Oppenheimer has described The Odyssey as the biggest, most ambitious and most challenging project of his career.
“Every film comes with its own challenges, but this one presented new obstacles at every stage,” Nolan said, adding that adapting Homer’s timeless masterpiece into a feature film proved to be the greatest creative test of his filmmaking career.
Shot across Morocco, Greece, Italy and Iceland, the production involved months of preparation for its large-scale battle sequences, elaborate sets and ambitious action scenes.
Recalling his first day on set in Morocco, Tom Holland said he felt as though he had travelled thousands of years back in time.
“I wasn’t looking at a film set—I felt like I’d walked straight into a chapter of history,” he said, describing thousands of performers, soldiers, hundreds of boats and a vast battlefield spread out before him.
Matt Damon also praised the film’s extraordinary scale. He recalled a sequence depicting the fall of Troy in which entire streets were engulfed in flames while thousands of extras recreated the chaos of war. He later learned that the spectacular sequence represented only a flashback scene in the film.
Technically, The Odyssey marks another milestone for Nolan as his first feature filmed entirely with IMAX cameras. The filmmaker said the goal was to deliver the most immersive and realistic cinematic experience possible.
With its mythological story, all-star cast, groundbreaking IMAX production and simultaneous worldwide release, The Odyssey is widely expected to become one of the biggest cinematic events of the year.
