Trailer Watch: Christopher Nolan Sets Off An Atomic Bomb In Oppenheimer
Welcome to the Nuclear Age.
Four months after sharing a first-look at Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan is ready to show more footage from his highly-anticipated historical thriller starring Cillian Murphy in the lead role of theoretical physicist J Robert Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer looks at the controversial career of Oppenheimer, aka the father of the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer was one of the primary contributors to the Manhattan Project, a government research effort devoted to the creation of nuclear weapons that took place from 1942-1946, and he was director of Los Alamos Laboratory, where the bombs were physically assembled.
Speaking to Total Film, Nolan revealed that he recreated a nuclear weapon detonation — without CGI effects.
“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,” the Interstellar auteur said.
“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 to call Oppenheimer “ 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 result come in, and as I’m putting the film together, I'm thrilled with what my team has been able to achieve.”
Oppenheimer marks a few milestones for Nolan: It’s the first movie he made with Universal Pictures after parting ways with Warner Bros, his home for more than a decade where he made eight movies, including The Dark Knight trilogy, Interstellar, Dunkirk and Tenet.
It’s also the first time he used a new kind of IMAX film stock.
“We challenged the people at Kodak and FotoKem. to make this work for us,” Nolan said in the same Total Film interview. “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 and I saw the first tests come in, we just knew that this was a format that we were immediately in love with.”
Nolan shot Oppenheimer IMAX 65mm and 65mm large-format film.
Oppenheimer is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin. The cast includes Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr, Matt Damon, Gary Oldman, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, Benny Safdie, Dane DeHaan, Jack Quaid, Matthew Modine, Alden Ehrenreich, Josh Peck, Jason Clarke, David Dastmalchian, Alex Wolff, and James D’Arcy.
Oppenheimer opens in Singapore cinemas on July 23. Watch the trailer here:
Photo: UIP
