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As an actor, linking up with certain directors—Wes Anderson, Mike Flanagan, Yorgos Lanthimos—is a guarantee of continued employment. Christopher Nolan, too, has a stable of stars he returns to repeatedly that includes the likes of Oscar winner Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh, and now, Benny Safdie, who was just cast in Nolan’s Odyssey film, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Safdie, who is also a director, was last seen in Nolan’s Oppenheimer. “I didn’t know what to expect going into one of Chris’s films because they’re so well crafted and you don’t really know how they’re put together. But on set, it was so open,” he told Vulture of the experience. “The blocking, the discovery of the shots—it was collaborative in a very deep way where you felt really good about everything that you were doing. Literally at one point, Hoyte van Hoytema was just rolling on the floor with the dolly—no track, just rolling the dolly, moving it around, just finding the right way to see it while you’re there.” He added, “As a filmmaker, I remember sitting in the lodge and I’m like, We’re going to be here for a while because this is like seven, eight scenes. It’s a hundred people. It’s period. They banged out everything so fast! We moved to a new location before lunch. I said, ‘I have no idea how you did that.’ It was just perfect execution, while still feeling free and light on your feet.”
Nolan’s Odyssey is described by Universal as “a mythic action epic shot across the world using brand new IMAX film technology.” Plot and character details remain under wraps, but the cast features several other returning Nolan players including Matt Damon (Interstellar and Oppenheimer), Anne Hathaway (The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar), and Robert Pattinson (Tenet). There are also a handful of newcomers: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, and Lupita Nyong’o. If they play their cards right, they, too, could earn spots in the Christopher Nolan Troupe.
