Cillian Murphy has been cast in Christopher Nolan’s next film, Oppenheimer. According to Variety, Cillian Murphy will be playing the father of the atomic bomb, J Robert Oppenheimer, who played a major role in the famed Manhattan Project that would eventually lead to the creation of the first-ever nuclear weapons that were used during WWII on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The film will be based on the book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer which is written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.
Universal Pictures ended up paying $100 million dollars for the rights to Oppenheimer after beating out the likes of Paramount, Sony, and Warner Bros.. For the first time in a long time, Nolan will not be working with Warner Bros., as he had done before with most of his other work. A surprise to almost no one since Nolan criticized them for releasing their entire slate of films simultaneously on HBO Max and theatrically, as a way to help us cope with Covid. Nolan’s last picture with Warner Bros., Tenet, was not part of that simultaneous release.
Oppenheimer will be written and directed by Nolan with production starting in early 2022. The picture will be shot in the standard Nolan IMAX he has become known for and is slated to release on July 21, 2023.
No Fear Toxins, Just Atoms
This marks the fifth time that Murphy and Nolan team up on a project. Of course, we have seen Murphy as Scarecrow in the Dark Knight Trilogy, but he was also in Nolan’s Inception and Dunkirk, respectively.
Nolan will also be reuniting with his longtime director of photography Hoyte Van Hoytema, who he has worked with on Dunkirk, Interstellar, and Tenet.
Which is your favorite Christopher Nolan picture, and for that matter, what’s your favorite Cillian Murphy picture/show? Let us know!!