Christopher Nolan's films are always talked about. His take on Batman in the Dark Knight trilogy inspired endless debate before the films' success silenced naysayers. The filmmaker was able to follow suit with successes like Interstellar and Oppenheimer. The British director would hope his new film, The Odyssey, could do something similar. The adaptation of Homer's epic has been met with a lot of criticism and questions about casting and ‘historical accuracy’. In a new interview, Nolan has defended taking creative liberties on the film.

Nolan defends creative liberties in The Odyssey

In an interview with Reuters, the Oscar-winning filmmaker admitted he enjoys adaptation ‘very much’, but admitted that it is ‘challenging’ with a Homer creation. “When you look at the text of the poem, it has really incredible payoffs. But the set-ups that a movie requires aren't there in an epic poem because its audience is familiar with the elements. So when Odysseus encounters Argos near the end of the poem, you know, his faithful hunting dog ... his audience knows it's coming. For us, we have to set that up. Once I sort of started to figure out that, okay, you have to take some liberties with it, you've got to move some things around in order to try and get across the impression that you had from experiencing the poem, you know, that's when things started to gain momentum,” Nolan said.

About The Odyssey

The Odyssey is an ancient Greek epic composed by Homer over 2000 years ago. One of the most widely read works of literature worldwide, its new adaptation is helmed by Christopher Nolan and stars Matt Damon as Odysseus. The film also stars Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, and Robert Pattinson.