Movies - Oppenheimer : Discover the first trailer

By Mulder, 19 december 2022

Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer is an IMAX-shot epic thriller that thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it.

Oppenheimer is an upcoming biographical film starring Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the American theoretical physicist credited with being the father of the atomic bomb for his role in the Manhattan Project—the World War II undertaking that developed the first nuclear weapons. The film is based on American Prometheus, a biography written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Rami Malek, Florence Pugh, Benny Safdie, Michael Angarano, Josh Hartnett, and Kenneth Branagh also star. It is a co-production between Universal Pictures, Syncopy Inc. and Atlas Entertainment, with Nolan producing the film alongside Emma Thomas and Charles Roven.

After Warner Bros. Pictures announced plans to give its 2021 films simultaneous releases in theaters and on HBO Max due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the film industry in December 2020, Nolan expressed his disbelief with the decision. Nolan was announced to write and direct a biographical film set during World War II about J. Robert Oppenheimer in September 2021, with Universal Pictures being chosen as the distributor. Much of the main cast signed on between September 2021 and April 2022. Filming began in late February 2022, and wrapped that May. Rather than using computer-generated graphics environments, Nolan used real explosives to recreate the Trinity nuclear test.

The film stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer and Emily Blunt as his wife, biologist and botanist Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer. Oscar winner Matt Damon portrays General Leslie Groves Jr., director of the Manhattan Project, and Robert Downey, Jr. plays Lewis Strauss, a founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Academy Award nominee Florence Pugh plays psychiatrist Jean Tatlock, Benny Safdie plays theoretical physicist Edward Teller, Michael Angarano plays Robert Serber and Josh Hartnett plays pioneering American nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence. Oppenheimer also stars Oscar winner Rami Malek and reunites Nolan with eight-time Oscar nominated actor, writer and filmmaker Kenneth Branagh. The cast includes Dane DeHaan (Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets), Dylan Arnold (Halloween franchise), David Krumholtz (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story) and Matthew Modine (The Dark Knight Rises).

The film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin. The film is produced by Emma Thomas, Atlas Entertainment’s Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan. Oppenheimer is filmed in a combination of IMAX® 65mm and 65mm large-format film photography including, for the first time ever, sections in IMAX® black and white analogue photography.

Pre-production was underway by January 2022 in New Mexico, where a two-day casting call took place in Santa Fe and Los Alamos for people to audition to play local residents, military personnel and scientists. Another casting call was held in February. Filming began in late February 2022 with Hoyte van Hoytema serving as cinematographer. In the second week of April, filming took place at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. The film uses a combination of IMAX 65 mm and 65 mm large-format film. It is also the first film to shoot sections in IMAX black and white analog photography. Gary Oldman said he would be on set for a day in May for "one scene, a page and a half". Filming also occurred in California, primarily around University of California, Berkeley. Filming wrapped after four months in May 2022. Filming involved the use of real explosives to recreate the Trinity nuclear test, forgoing the use of computer-generated graphics.

Nolan’s films, including Tenet, Dunkirk, Interstellar, Inception and The Dark Knight trilogy, have earned more than $5 billion at the global box office and have been awarded 11 Oscars and 36 nominations, including two Best Picture nominations.

Oppenheimer is scheduled to be released in the United States on July 21, 2023, by Universal Pictures. It is Nolan's first film not to be distributed by Warner Bros. domestically or internationally since Memento (2000).

Synopsis :
Based on American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. Biopic about J. Robert Oppenheimer the "father of the atomic bomb" during World War II.

Oppenheimer
Written and Directed by Christopher Nolan
Based on American Prometheus by Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin
Produced by Emma Thomas, Charles Roven, Christopher Nolan
Starring Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Rami Malek, Florence Pugh, Benny Safdie, Michael Angarano, Josh Hartnett, Kenneth Branagh
Cinematography : Hoyte van Hoytema
Edited by Jennifer Lame
Music by Ludwig Göransson
Production companies : Syncopy Inc., Atlas Entertainment
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date : July 19, 2022 (France), July 21, 2023 (United States)