Christopher Nolan revealed that some IMAX footage from The Odyssey nearly faced disaster when airport customs officials inspected the film canisters.
On The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Thursday, the director recalled a nerve-racking moment at Scottish customs, where security officials “opened up all the cans” holding IMAX film for his ambitious new movie shot entirely in the format.
“It was a massive amount of film cans,” Nolan told Fallon, revealing that the raw footage came dangerously close to being exposed. The director later reassured viewers that “they did not actually expose it” and that the team managed to rescue the film.
IMAX film is kept in sealed cans that protect it from light, heat, and moisture, because even brief exposure to light can ruin the footage.
Fallon, 51, joked that Nolan must have been sweating when the situation unfolded. The director replied, “Big time,” prompting the late-night host to joke: “You were like, ‘I can’t reshoot this, buddy. We were in a cave.’”
Featuring a star-studded cast, The Odyssey cost a reported $250 million to make and was filmed over 91 days using two million feet of IMAX film. Nolan’s ambitious production spanned six countries, including the Moray Firth coast in northeast Scotland.
Speaking to Time magazine, NBCUniversal chair Donna Langley, who gave the film the green light, said the production team was “up against the weather and the elements,” adding that Nolan is “a very responsible filmmaker” who “minimizes risk and prepares appropriately and hires a team that can execute at the highest level.”
During the film’s promotional tour, much of the cast shared anecdotes from the often grueling filming process.
Matt Damon, 55, who plays the lead role of Odysseus, told Radio Andy host Andy Cohen that the physically demanding shoot left many of the cast dealing with one specific injury.
“A lot of us are middle-aged people and what we got was back pain,” he joked, adding that spending long stretches in sandals as the Greek hero resulted in several cuts to his feet.
Meanwhile, Tom Holland, 30, who plays Telemachus, the son of Damon’s Odysseus, revealed that it was his first time working with IMAX cameras.
He admitted he did not realize the cameras could only run for around three minutes at a time, leading him to mistakenly believe Nolan was cutting his scenes because he was not delivering good performances. “I thought I was totally s--tting the bed,” Holland told Fandango.
Following filming, a Swedish nonprofit behind one of the replica ships featured in The Odyssey claimed the film’s studio had failed to pay for damage allegedly caused during production. Universal Studios, however, called the dispute a “misunderstanding” and said the matter had been fully resolved.
Running for 2 hours and 52 minutes, The Odyssey scored the biggest live-action opening weekend of the year upon its theatrical debut.
