Coming off the stunning success of his film Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan is currently rolling out his follow-up, which is an adaptation of Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, which was composed in the 8th century BC.
When the trailers for Nolan’s new film hit YouTube, there was a bit of an internet controversy over the film’s language. The characters are speaking in modern, American English. At one point, Tom Holland’s Telemachus refers to Matt Damon’s Odysseus as his “dad.” Some viewers have balked at that, saying it breaks the immersion to hear American accents in Ancient Greece. And.. that would be fair enough if they were advocating for the film to use Ancient Greek with subtitles, but mostly, it seems like people are craving English accents, like the ones used in Game of Thrones or Gladiator. That strikes me as a bit strange, because all English language would be anachronistic to Ancient Greece, since the English language didn’t exist. Referring to a character “Father” or “Dad” is an interesting distinction to make when neither word would be used for over a thousand years after the story takes place anyway.
The Odyssey is fiction and comes from an oral tradition, which means that storytellers have been changing details and injecting their own personality for centuries. When the Coen Brothers adapted The Odyssey into O Brother Where Art Thou, they made it into a slapstick Western satire with folk music, and that made sense for them. With an adaptation from Christopher Nolan, it looks like audiences will get an epic IMAX-immersive storytelling experience filmed on location with daunting costumes and a star-studded cast, which is what makes the most sense for him.
Adapting The Odyssey is all about adapting The Odyssey. It’s Greek myth full of monsters and gods, and it’s primed for interpretation. I can’t wait to see what exactly Chris Nolan’s new version has to offer.
The Odyssey is set to hit theaters on July 17.
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