REVEALED: Zendaya, Matt Damon Head to Western Greece for Christopher Nolan's very big "The Odyssey" Shoot
Ok, we'd rather see Brad Pitt in this, but this beats another high-budget comic book calamity
Confession: we are not huge fans of Christopher Nolan. Dunkirk left us reaching for our earplugs and wondering why even famous directors think it’s cool to forgo little things like plot. Oppenheimer? With all due respect, we didn’t need three hours of screen time to tell us that nukes are nasty.
But the question du jour is, do we really need Hollywood to tell, or retell, us the epic saga of Homer’s Odyssey? No, but inasmuch as Hollywood is the cultural arm of American commercial imperialism, there’s not much we can do about it is there. We can only hope that Mr. Nolan remembers that no matter how many dollars lubricate his latest filmic splurge, he will not be able to do a better job than Homer did himself. Why? Because the Odyssey is as much excursion into imagination as it is epic poem — the latter can be translated to be film, but the former cannot. Read a few pages of it for yourself and see what we mean.
In any case, here we are. We know that countries like to think that big Hollywood productions do wonders for the economy, although if White Lotus and Game of Thrones are any indication, these big egofests tend to contribute to overtourism and make places like Dubrovnik unbearably overcrowded.
Universal Pictures recently announced that Christopher Nolan’s next film ‘The Odyssey’ “is a mythic action epic shot across the world using brand new IMAX film technology. The film brings Homer’s foundational saga to IMAX film screens for the first time and opens in theaters everywhere on July 17, 2026.” In the lead role, Matt Damon.
Despite Universal’s press release puffery, IMAX technology, though certainly modifiable, is definitely not new.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Damon will be joined in the star-studded film by Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Benny Safdie, Jon Bernthal, Elliot Page, Himesh Patel, Bill Irwin, Samantha Morton and Mia Goth.
The industry magazine notes that Homer’s epic poem “tells of King Odysseus’ perilous 10-year journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War” (of course, if he had flown American Airlines, it might have taken him even longer!). So yes, as Odysseus makes his way back, he’s “forced to contend with interruptions from the gods and other mythical creatures” (like Bianca Censori? That would be fun!). Meanwhile, his wife and son “have to contend with suitors seeking to replace him.”
The Greek media chronicled the arrival of Matt Damon and others in Greece earlier this month, but they weren’t coming for a sojourn in Athens. The lights, camera and action, as it were, are all unfolding in the Peloponnese, specifically along the west coast of the fabled peninsula, in and around the towns of Pylos and Methoni.
According to Variety, some scenes of the movie have already been filmed in Sicily. Considering how peripatetic Odysseus was, it stands to reason that the cast and crew would follow in his footsteps, as it were.
Greek public broadcaster ERT reported that Tom Holland, who will portray Telemachus, was present in the Messinia region, as were Christopher Nolan and Matt Damon, on March 5. Two planes from Morocco landed at the local airport that day, ERT reported. The flights reportedly delivered some 180 crew members, including actors and technical staff, who boarded buses and private vehicles heading to the Pylos region.
This is a very scenic chunk of Greece, and home to the Costa Navarino resorts as well as, slightly to the north, the ruins of ancient Olympia. Despite this, the region is still largely off the tourist radar — for now, anyway.
