Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer' Posters Revealed!

Courtesy of Universal Pictures

After the release of his most divisive film project yet, Tenet, a film delayed repeatedly by COVID-19 before opening on its planned summer wide release date in 70mm in mostly empty theaters and followed by the emergence of Warner Brothers’ HBO Max simultaneous streaming/theatrical release plan, Christopher Nolan made arguably the boldest move of his career yet: split ties with the safety net of Warner Brothers after nearly two decades to pursue film production work with another company.  Despite Nolan’s pedigree and ardent studio support given how profitable the director’s body of work continues to be for the company, the transition rippled throughout the film community who saw with Nolan’s departure the end of an era of original expensive director-driven movies.

 

While Denis Villenueve seems to have taken Nolan’s spot at Warner Brothers as the company’s top director, Nolan proceeded to strike up a new working relationship with Universal Pictures in what could be his most polarizing and divisive project yet: a biopic on the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, i.e. the father of the atomic bomb.  With recurring character actor Cillian Murphy cast in the titular role of Oppenheimer with Emily Blunt joining the cast as his wife Katherine alongside Robert Downey, Jr. and Matt Damon, the film also reunites Nolan with his frequent collaborators such as composer Ludwig Göransson, cinematographer Hoyt van Hoytema and editor Leslie Groves.  Poised at a $100 budget with total creative control, Nolan will also shoot the project on IMAX and 65mm film and according to the recently released film posters with a July 21, 2023 release date set should come out in 35mm, 70mm and IMAX film prints.

 

The posters themselves recently released tell a variety of early vistas to expect from Nolan’s forthcoming film about what is still the world’s most terrifying prospect: nuclear annihilation.  With the name of actor Cillian Murphy at the top, each poster features the actor, cigarette in mouth, gazing upon the destruction of his creating.  Bearing the tagline ‘The Destroyer of Worlds’ with one image showing a mushroom cloud forming over his head, and another of Oppenheimer looking on with the explosion reflected on his goggles, the images seem to suggest the film will be as much about the man as the awesome frightening spectacle of a nuclear detonation itself.  What is true, however, is that this is the largest scale film production being made currently that isn’t tied to the MCU or DCEU machinery or summer tentpole productions.  Like Dunkirk before it, this is a historical drama being made in the grand tradition of David Lean and will tell the story on a massive scale epic in scope.

 
The first film in nearly twenty years of Nolan’s career not to be made under the Warner Brothers umbrella and inarguably the director’s most controversial topic of discussion in his filmography, Oppenheimer is shaping up to be a daring project made during a unique period of uncertainty in the director’s career when the face of the film industry is being reshaped by a still-ongoing pandemic with studios scrambling to figure out alternative release plans, a time when the platform of the so-called director-driven studio supported project itself is being threatened.  If nothing else, the film will provide actor Cillian Murphy with the role of his career and Nolan with enough cataclysmic fireworks at his arsenal to create what could be the most realistic dramatized depiction of a nuclear blast ever attempted on film that isn’t by directors like James Cameron or David Lynch. 

-Andrew Kotwicki