Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)

leahyl

So excited for Cillian Murphy!! What a role! An unassuming Cork man starring as the lead in a Hollywood movie - who would have thought?! 😄

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117999761#Comment_117999761

Well. Looks like while actually detonating a nuke was probably never viable, Nolan claims to have recreated the nuclear tests using practical FX, not CGI.

"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," explains Nolan in Total Film(opens in new tab)’s upcoming 2023 Preview issue. "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."

https://www.avclub.com/christopher-nolan-oppenheimer-cgi-1849887864

Tony EH

That just sounds a bit silly really.

CGI has its problems, but really...he couldn't just let his opposition to it slide a wee bit and just do the mushroom cloud with graphics?

'Dunkirk' suffered because he wouldn't bend and use CGI to, at least, make it look like the RAF and Luftwaffe put more aircraft into the air than just a few lads that had nothing better to do that day.

I get his POV (I share it) and bad CGI is a million times worse than bad practical effects (skill level depending of course). But when it has a negative impact on the finished product you'd have to wonder about the wisdom involved.

RobbingBandit

Nolan used actual planes to film the CIA hijacking scene by Bane in The Dark Knight Rises he is a method director plain and simple.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119993994#Comment_119993994

or airbrush out those glass apartments along the seafront of Dunkirk.

I do agree, but as a film nerd I can't help but buzz at the idea someone like Nolan is using the Old Ways to recreate a nuclear explosion. Maybe the desire is to do an "in camera" effect for the actors to properly react to - that'd certainly have more value than a green-screen, if their reactions to their eyebrows being sizzled was real!

FortuneChip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK6ldnjE3Y0

Full trailer has landed.

Looks and feels like a Nolan movie.

pixelburp

Certainly looks as I might expect it to; I can't deny I'm curious to see how Nolan handles what appears to be a more streamlined biopic, rather than the latter-day clockwork toys that were Dunkirk and Tenet. Certainly looks like Murphy might be gunning for an Awards worthy performance.

TheIrishGrover

I'm assuming there will be some time-shift shenanigans (Flashbacks-within-flashbacks/flash-forwards etc) as the film is about Oppenheimer himself rather than just The Manhattan Project. So I'm assuming it will be framed around some points in the 50s (Trying to be vague here). But yeah, certainly more of a standard flow alright.

We all knew Nolan was going to attempt practical effects if at all possible. I have nothing against CGI but I do love when practical effects are used where possible: From Nolan to Del Toro. I'm assuming this will be done via (still massive) miniatures.

But please, Christopher. PLEASE dial-up the dialogue channel this time. I get it, you like that whole 70s Robert Altman dialogue-vibe. Where dialogue and background audio are all mixed for realism. But Tenet was basically indecipherable for much of its runtime. So dial back Zimmer just a smidge and dial up the dialogue. This has the potential to be really very good for Murphy but, as with Ryan Gosling's Neil Armstong, Oppenheiner wasn't exactly the most histrionic of people so it will be a slow burn. Not as flashy as some. Extremely INTERESTING, yes, but no Al-Pacino-arm-flapping.

MisterAnarchy

Looks very promising.

Oppenheimer has been in the news this week, Joe Biden.

Big Gerry

At 100 Million the budget for Oppenheimer is low for Nolan at this stage in his career.

You think he would be able to get at least 200 million to make it not 100 million.

Snake Plisken

Looks good! My last trip to the cinema was for Tenet and this will be my next trip! Nolan is the only director who can get me to the cinema these days.

Slydice

Hmmmm, maybe they'll include Compartmentalization. I liked that part of the Manhattan TV series. Oppenheimer sounding like people are not knowing things could be related.. or just the wider world.

JP Liz V1

New Poster

Tony EH

Looks like a poster for a feckin Marvel movie.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120561533#Comment_120561533

To be fair the art of the film poster was already dead a good few years before Marvel came along. I'm only suprised the "by Christopher Nolan" text isn't larger lol.

silverharp

Cillian angling for a next Indiana Jones?

raclle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120560669#Comment_120560669

That's a decent cast as well. Didn't Cillian and Emily co-star together before? I seem to remember them in something.

Mr Crispy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120562600#Comment_120562600

The sequel to A Quiet Place?

Don't think this one will be quiet!

Slydice

Sure it's not the hunger games that the poster is reminding you of?

peteeeed

new trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYPbbksJxIg

2smiggy

nice trailer. Looking forward to this

silverharp

It looks good but you can kinda fill out the story in your head based on it.

monkeybutter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120569416#Comment_120569416

its as if we kinda know the story somehow already.....

pixelburp

Looks like they'll highlight an important detail that was always a really interesting, apocalyptic anecdote about the Manhattan project: that the scientists couldn't be sure the bomb wouldn't ignite the Earth's atmosphere & kills everything.

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120569524#Comment_120569524

no sht sherlock, still would have been better with a trailer under a minute

FortuneChip

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120562575#Comment_120562575

Indiana Bones, maybe.

It looks like a Nolan movie. And that's enough to get me into the cinema - even if Tenet was underwhelming. Bonus, I think it's great to see Cillian landing a major leading role.

Might be an unpopular take, and I don't even know why, but I'd rather they cast someone other than Matt Damon here.

monkeybutter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120570250#Comment_120570250

calm down, calm down, its a story that's pretty well know, there isn't some twist to be revealed

the trailers about 1m long if you remove the slow mo explosion and the floating text

buried

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120569992#Comment_120569992

Yeah I was sure they would leave that nugget out but they seem to be really highlighting that fact by blatantly placing it in the main trailer.

The likes of David Lynch only cryptically alluded to it in his last Twin Peaks work.

Looks great anyways, a trip to the cinema event you will absolutely have to go to.

Cordell

They were eventually sure that it's not possible to initiate such a reaction. And it wasn't ignition, it was a potential fusion reaction involving nitrogen, that's something that was going to end very fast either way...

Also there is this tv series about Project Manhattan, it's not historically accurate but it's still worth a watch:

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/manhattan/s01

McDermotX

IIRC, Enrico Fermi was still jokingly offering odds on the notion of disastrously disrupting the atmosphere in the days leading up to the test, even after it had been discounted. One of the more amusing anecdotes. Less amusing, though admittedly and regrettably tongue in cheek, was the opinion voiced about reaching out to the Japanese and invite them to witness the initial test as opposed to using the weapon as a city-wide device (something that more and more of the team had significant concerns with, not to mention against Japan to begin with) - at that point there were still concerns that it might not work, and 'what would that demonstrate' - to which one of the scientists working with Oppenheimer suggested that 'they could just kill them if it failed' and the enemy would be none the wiser.

Been a while since I read American Prometheus, but it was a pretty fascinating biography, in which the actual test was decidedly low-key, bookended by the story of a fascinating individual. I'd imagine the film will obviously concentrate a significant amount on Los Alamos/Trinity, but you can obviously see from both trailers the black and white sections dealing with Strauss, the AEC, security clearance hearings etc. Be interesting to see how much story it invests in covering the doubts, concerns and objections. Well worth a read for anyone interested at all in the subject matter and the early stages of the nuclear arms race.