There are some new images and details for Oppenheimer, thanks to a new published article by
Total Film Magazine here in the UK. We primarily get an interview with Christopher Nolan,
talking about how he filmed the nuclear trinity test, the development of a new Black
and white IMAX film camera and his thoughts on the performances of Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey
Jr. In this video, I'm going to be discussing the images and details shared, breaking down
the newest info from the film. Before I get into it though, if you want to keep up to date on
any of my content surrounding Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer,
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lets discuss the new images and details for Oppenheimer from Total Film.
So for me, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is right at the top of my most anticipated films
of 2023, and with Total Film giving us a new article with details and images from the film,
you could say that I was more than excited to check it out. The film stars Cillian Murphy
as a J. Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist who helped design the first nuclear
weapons during World War 2, later resulting in the two nuclear explosions in Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. Leading the Manhattan Project’s Los Alamos Laboratory, he would go on to feel guilt
surrounding the power he helped forge, and the years that followed involved trials and
investigations into his political associations. This is the first time Cillian Murphy has lead a
Christopher Nolan film having starred in previous projects during the rise of the auteur Blockbuster
filmmakers early career. And alongside an ensemble cast and Nolan's adaptation of Kai
Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s book, American Prometheus, there's even more to be excited about.
The new Total Film article which is included in this month's magazine features two covers,
one standard and one subscriber version, alongside multiple images and details from an
interview with Nolan. The images include Cillian Murphy at a court hearing, an intense moment
between Cillian's character and his wife Katherine, played by Emily Blunt, a new shot of
Robert Downey Jr in black and white film, Cillian climbing a structure at what could be the
trinity test site, Oppenheimer amongst an audience, and a behind the scenes shot of Nolan,
cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema and the main actor setting up take in the desert. I will
show these images on screen again as I get into the details, so speaking of that, let's dive into
that mentioned Christopher Nolan interview. So in the magazine article, Nolan talked to Total
Film about how he recreated the first nuclear weapon detonation using no CGI or digital effects,
and the struggle of pulling this off. The filmmaker is of course known for favouring
practical effects, so it’s understandable that he would go the full mile in capturing a Nuclear
explosion to it's biggest of possibilities onscreen. In the article, the filmmaker said,
“I think recreating the Trinity test [the first nuclear weapon detonation, in New Mexico] without
the use of computer graphics was a huge challenge to take on. Andrew Jackson — my
visual effects supervisor, I got him on board early on — was looking at how we could do a lot
of the visual elements of the film practically, from representing quantum dynamics and quantum
physics to the Trinity test itself, to recreating, with my team, Los Alamos up on a mesa in New
Mexico in extraordinary weather, a lot of which was needed for the film, in terms of
the very harsh conditions out there — there were huge practical challenges.” He went on saying that
Oppenheimer is a “story of immense scope and scale. It’s one of the most challenging
projects I’ve ever taken on in terms of the scale of it, and in terms of encountering the
breadth of Oppenheimer’s story. There were big, logistical challenges, big practical challenges.
But I had an extraordinary crew, and they really stepped up. It will be a while before
we’re finished. But certainly as I watch the results come in, and as I’m putting the film
together, I’m thrilled with what my team has been able to achieve.” And as he hints at in the
article, the traditional Nolan thematics, the uses of time, and the subjective experience of
reality will all be present in new ways. Nolan said,
"We’re trying to tell the story of somebody’s life, and their journey through personal
history and larger-scale history. And so the subjectivity of the story is everything to me. We
want to view these events through Oppenheimer’s eyes. And that was the challenge for
Cillian that I set him, to take us on this journey;
that was the challenge for Hoyte van Hoytema, my designer, my whole team: how do we view this
extraordinary story through the eyes of the person who was at the heart of it?
All of our decisions on how to make this film were based on that real premise."
It's not just from a thematic or storytelling perspective that Nolan is building his film upon
though, because he also gave us some details surrounding the new technology that this
project is going to be pushing forward too. Like the teaser trailer suggested there will
be IMAX black-and-white footage in the film, but Total Film confirmed that there will also be
sequences in color featured throughout. Nolan recalled, "I very much loved the structural
assistance and the aesthetic charge of shifting between color and black and white that I had on
Memento. I’d always been looking for a reason to go back to that. And in the case of Oppenheimer
and the way in which we tell this story, it’s very subjectively [told], but also with a
more objective story strand that intertwines with that. It was really the perfect time to go
back to that device that I loved so much. So we challenged the people at Kodak and Fotokem to
make this work for us. And they stepped up. For the first time ever, we were able to shoot
IMAX film in black-and-white. And the results were thrilling and extraordinary. As soon as
Hoyte van Hoytema and I saw the first tests come in, we just knew that this was a format
that we were immediately in love with." Finally, Nolan did mention a bit about his cast,
and specifically he talked about the performances of Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. On
Cillian, he said, "I’ve always known since I first met him – however many years ago it
is now, almost 20 years – that he is one of the great actors, not just of his generation,
but of all time. And I’ve been waiting for the project, and I know he has too, where we can
collaborate with him as the lead, and I could put the most enormous weight – cinematic weight – on
his shoulders, and watch him carry that burden. It was such a thrill to be able to
call Cillian, and say, ‘This is it.’" Then there's the addition of Robert Downey Jr, who plays Lewis
Strauss, chairman of the US Atomic Energy Commission, who would later go against
Oppenheimer. Nolan said, "We all know that Robert Downey Jr. is one of the great movie stars. It’s
so easy to forget that he’s also one of the greatest actors of all time. Watching him lose
himself in that performance, and completely lose himself in a character in this way,
was just an incredible reminder of just what an amazing actor he is." So based on Nolan's comments
it'll be interesting to see to what extent all the actors have transformed into their individual
roles and to what amount Oppenheimer's perspective is used when it comes to how the
audience sees that story unfold. Based on these images, it definitely looks more character focused
then the last 2 Nolan pictures and that's something I've always loved about the filmmaker.
Each project he keeps his signature style on display but at the same time it's vastly
different from the previous one in structure, storytelling and character portrayals. And with
what Nolan says about the brand new IMAX camera that was developed and the filming
of that nuclear explosion scene using practical effects, it makes me wonder just how he will pull
it all off this time. We'll soon find out, but I expect Nolan will have outdone himself again from
a filmmaking and storytelling perspective.
But they were the main images and details released from the new Total Film edition of
Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer. Just to tag on at the end of this video because people keep asking
me, I currently have no idea whether we will be getting an Oppenheimer trailer in front of Avatar:
The Way Of Water, as the only thing that's been confirmed to play in front of that film,
is a 4 minute new look at the Mission Impossible 7. Many of us predicted before that Avatar 2 would
be the perfect spot for the new Oppenheimer trailer because it follows the traditional
Nolan trailer release strategy with his previous films. But with this new article being dropped
this week and that Mission Impossible footage attached to Avatar 2, we may be looking at a
rare case where that strategy isn't repeated this time around. Ultimately, we'll have to see
and I will keep you up to date on my community page if I have any news surrounding a trailer
drop, but as of right now I haven't heard anything official surrounding it. But when it comes to the
new article from Total Film, I'm interested to hear what you guys think towards the
new images and details, alongside what personally excites you about
Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer. So let me know down below in the comments section.
For much more videos and news on Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, then subscribe to the
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