Director Christopher Nolan’s “Odyssey” To His Upcoming Blockbuster Started Before His Batman Trilogy With Another Epic Greek Saga
Christopher Nolan is tackling Homer’s The Odyssey, but it isn’t his first brush with the broad sword of ancient myth. In the early 2000s, the director was offered a massive Hollywood epic loaded with gods, warriors, and studio expectations.
That film was Troy, one that turned into a middling affair, barely remembered today, despite its all-star cast – which features Brad Pitt – and the Olympic scale of it all. “I was originally hired by Warner Bros. to direct Troy,” Nolan told Empire Online recently. Other projects, including the first crack at Batman v Superman, wound up in limbo.
Troy would revert to the hands of filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen, who initially developed it before it was briefly taken from his grasp. “Wolfgang had developed it, and so when the studio decided not to proceed with his superhero movie [Batman vs. Superman], he wanted [Troy] back,” Nolan said. And though he got it, upon arriving in theaters in time for summer, the film didn’t win over a lot of critics.
Or members of its cast, for that matter; late acting legend Peter O’Toole (who played Priam, King of Troy) walked out of a screening after 15 minutes and wrote Petersen off as a clown. Pitt later confessed he was obligated to be in the epic after bowing out of another film. Still, it went on to become one of the biggest hits of 2004 – a year stacked with them, namely The Passion of the Christ and Spider-Man 2.
Nolan was forced to walk away and choose a different creative path that would define his career. Of course, we’re alluding to Batman Begins and The Dark Knight trilogy spawned from it, just as the night spawned The Bat himself. It was a perfect fit considering how Nolan dealt with broken protagonists like Bruce Wayne before in both Insomnia and Memento.
He was also gift-wrapped the chance to rebuild a mythos, that became Hollywood Kryptonite thanks to Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin, from the ground up. It was a gamble, but it paid off to the tune of billions after The Dark Knight hit theaters.
Nolan’s return to Greek legend feels less like a new chapter and more like a long‑delayed stroll through a labyrinth not yet taken. He added, “At the end of the day, it was a world that I was very interested to explore. So it’s been at the back of my mind for a very long time. Certain images, particularly. How I wanted to handle the Trojan horse, things like that.”
