After a falling out with that studio over WarnerMedia‘s day-and-date release model in 2021 director Christopher Nolan left his longtime studio home at Warner Bros. and set up shop at Universal. That move paved the way for the filmmaker to auction off his WWII drama “Oppenheimer” and secure a lengthy theatrical-only release. The project stars Irish actor Cillian Murphy as Robert J. Oppenheimer one of the key scientists that helped create the atomic bomb for the U.S. military that was unleashed upon Japan, leading to the end of WWII, but costing thousands of lives in the process.
Oscar-winning actor Gary Oldman (“Darkest Hour“) has revealed to TalkSport (via Deadline) that he’s filming a scene next month with Nolan and it will be short, only a page’s worth of material. It’s a reunion of sorts, obviously, as Oldman played Commissioner Jim Gordon in Nolan’s ‘Dark Knight‘/Batman trilogy that also starred Murphy.
The impressive group of actors selected for the drama includes Emily Blunt as biologist/botanist Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer, Matt Damon as Gen. Leslie Groves Jr., director of the Manhattan Project, and Robert Downey, Jr. as Lewis Strauss, a founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.
The rest of the cast is stacked and huge and includes Florence Pugh, Benny Safdie, Michael Angarano, Josh Hartnett, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, Dane DeHaan, Dylan Arnold, David Krumholtz, Alden Ehrenreich, Jack Quaid, Matthew Modine.David Dastmalchian, Olli Haaskivi, Jason Clarke, James D’Arcy, Guy Burnet, Danny Deferrari, Matthias Schweighöfer, Harrison Gilbertson, Emma Dumont, Devon Bostick, Alex, Wolff, and Trond Fausa.
It still feels odd, given Japan’s central involvement in the story, as thousands of Japanese were killed by the bombs dropped, that the cast is mostly made up of white actors. We’re hopeful that Nolan will somehow include the Japanese perspective and honor the dead, but it’s likely going to be a controversial film in the end. It’s been described as a great thriller and Nolan knows how to do ticking doom and gloom, but we’re hoping the filmmaker definitely explores the horrible moral dilemma and tragedy of it all.
Production on “Oppenheimer” is already well underway and will be released on July 21, 2023, barring any future slate changes from Universal.