Acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan (“Dunkirk“) is returning to the WWII era with his upcoming biopic of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. A key figure during the invention of the atomic bomb for the U.S. military that helped turn the tides of the Second World War after it was horrifically unleashed upon the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leading to the country’s surrender in an attempt to avoid further carnage as the Pacific Campaign was extremely brutal for U.S. forces. “Oppenheimer” will see Irish actor Cillian Murphy, Nolan’s longtime collaborator, playing the historical wartime figure and his team developed one of the most destructive weapons of their time. We now have an idea of how long the drama will be.
Puck News has a report in their newsletter claiming that “Oppenheimer” is expected to surpass the 2-hour 50-minute runtime of “Interstellar” becoming Nolan’s longest film to date, at around three hours. That’s if the film doesn’t undergo further edits or trimming before it’s locked for a summer release. Still, plan those bathroom breaks accordingly it sounds like it’ll be a long one.
The rest of the cast consists of Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, and Robert Downey, Jr. in key supporting roles. Other players on the drama’s call sheet include Rami Malek, Florence Pugh, Benny Safdie, Josh Hartnett, Matthew Modine, Kenneth Branagh, Jason Clarke, Jack Quaid, Josh Peck, Michael Angarano, Dane DeHaan, David Krumholtz, Alden Ehrenreich, David Dastmalchian, Alex Wolff, Casey Affleck, and Gary Oldman in a cameo as President Harry Truman.
This will be the first time since 2000’s “Memento” that Nolan will be releasing one of his films without the help of Warner Bros. after there was a falling out between the director and WarnerMedia‘s disastrous attempt to boost their streaming service HBO Max with a day-and-date model that ultimately was seen as a failure and contributing to the Discovery acquisition/merger. Nolan made his objections public leading him to shop the WWII film to other studios with Universal Pictures winning the auction. It’ll be interesting to see if Nolan makes Universal his new homestead as “Oppenheimer” goes head-to-head with “Barbie” (a WBD film) on July 21.