Inception is a film on how awesome the people who make films are. Once you realize that, you can't unsee how much of a self masturbatory piece it is. It shitting on the entire cast for basic teenager philosophy question sours it even more.
Nolan has always jerked himself off in his films. The Prestige is about the process of filmmaking. Tenet constantly reenforced the audience to "don't try to understand it; feel it" because he knows trying to understand it isn't going to help. Memento is about the audience's point of view in regards to the plotline or perception of a film, and Leonard is a vessel to show an analogy of this. He's always talking to the audience in his films.
If a 33 y/o is too young and pretty for the role of someone who possesses ageless beauty then call Mamie Van Doren's agent while you're at it. That bitch is old enough to have blown the Wright brothers, Neil Armstrong AND Elon Musk. BTW they didn't tell Victoria Justice that they were looking for someone as black as tar so they're 100% owning the Chuds with the Mexikenyan. People used to respect Lupita for backing out of The Woman King once she found out what the Dahomey Amazons were about.
She's hot. What I find interesting is that a Latina, a swarthy Jewess or an Arab bint would've also been accurate casting as Andromeda was an Aethiopian princess and King Cepheus was originally from Egypt.
That's the weird thing with Nolan's casting; while Odysseus' crew and family should obviously be Greek, there's plenty of figures he runs into that could be played by some Lebanese, Jew, Arab, or Coptic type, without being too far out there.
It's not like they couldn't have worked "diversity" into the film organically if they'd tried harder, without messing with Helen and her family or Achilles, etc.
That guy playing the new He-Man is probably the most accurate Achilles casting you could get today since Arnold is pushing 80; he's currently roided up like a bodybuilder for He-Man so he looks the part, he's blond, he's at least half-Greek and actually speaks Greek fluently apparently, and he's around 30, which is about the right age for Achilles at his death. He's only 6 foot, but by Hollywood standards, that's tall, at least a few inches taller than Damon.
For Helen, you just need any pretty blond Greek woman in her twenties/early 30s, just search Greek soap operas and modeling companies. They're not exactly falling off the trees, but they aren't impossible to find.
I've seen this name floating on Twitter, because she's on some greek Netflix show: Clelia Andriolatou
Her face is kind of all over the place depending on makeup and lighting, but with the right angles, she can look the part, and it's not like Helen is some big role in the Odyssey anyway. Though it sounds like Nolan is making a much more substantial role for her or her sister, pulling in more Iliad elements, for whatever reason. Why the fuck he thinks Helen of Troy has an identical twin sister, is a whole other discussion.
For Calypso, he cast Charlize Theron, which is another misstep. Calypso is probably Nolan's best option for inserting a "diversity" hire since she's not human and nobody knows where her island is (in fact, Ogygia might be a pre-Plato reference to Atlantis, since Calypso is a daughter of Atlas and her island is sometimes said to be somewhere in the Atlantic, or Malta.)
He could've cast a woman of any race for Calypso and probably gotten away with it. I'm as tired of her as anyone, but when I first saw that Zendaya chick from Dunc was in this, I just assumed she was Calypso (or Princess Nausicaa finding Odysseus washed ashore). And that Charlize Theron was obviously playing Athena.
As is, it just feels like his casting choices were deliberately designed to annoy people by pushing agenda items in the audiences' faces and hurt the box office. I know Hollywood loves shitting on classical European works, as part of their demoralization/colonization effort against White identity, but Nolan generally hasn't openly tried to self-sabotage his films like this. He's pretentious, but in a film mechanics way, not so much the typical Hollywood idpol way.
Unless this is just what Nolan looks like when he has total control over a project and no studio holding him back.
From what I recall, he was originally set to direct Troy, but ended up doing Batman Begins instead; so it might actually be that he's dreamed of making the Iliad and now he's sort-of getting his chance again.
That might explain why he seems to be incorporating more characters from the Iliad (like Helen's sister). We might be getting more of a weird 25% Iliad, 75% Odyssey hybrid film. Though it wouldn't explain the horrible casting decisions.
That guy playing the new He-Man is probably the most accurate Achilles casting you could get today since Arnold is pushing 80; he's currently roided up like a bodybuilder for He-Man so he looks the part, he's blond, he's at least half-Greek and actually speaks Greek fluently apparently, and he's around 30, which is about the right age for Achilles at his death. He's only 6 foot, but by Hollywood standards, that's tall, at least a few inches taller than Damon.
For Calypso, he cast Charlize Theron, which is another misstep. Calypso is probably Nolan's best option for inserting a "diversity" hire since she's not human and nobody knows where her island is (in fact, Ogygia might be a pre-Plato reference to Atlantis, since Calypso is a daughter of Atlas and her island is sometimes said to be somewhere in the Atlantic, or Malta.)
He could've cast a woman of any race for Calypso and probably gotten away with it. I'm as tired of her as anyone, but when I first saw that Zendaya chick from Dunc was in this, I just assumed she was Calypso (or Princess Nausicaa finding Odysseus washed ashore). And that Charlize Theron was obviously playing Athena.
If he really wants to use these two then I believe that Zendaya as Calypso would be acceptable. Light enough to not cause a large backlash. Theron is just too old to play an ageless nymph and she probably had work done too. The Ancient Greeks adored youth, to die young was literally the greatest gift the gods could grant. See the story of Biton and Cleobis. But you can't even open your fridge without stumbling into one of these middle aged botox bitches. Have her play Penelope or something. Has Eurycleia been cast yet? I fully expect her to be some Hollywood sabertooth now instead of the crone she's supposed to be. Like how they made Aunt May hot for some stupid reason.
If anyone wants to check out something like this in terms of Greco-Roman mythology that's in line with how Mel Gibson would have tackled it, then the Italian made movie Romulus the First King and the TV show version called Romulus are worth checking out (both have different takes on the origin myth but the same production/creative team). They're both in Latin, however, the TV show version does have some woke nonsense, like a girlboss character that feels out of place since you know you can't have a passive female love interest anymore in modern media, but it doesn't completely kill the show. It's worth checking out if you like anything Roman related.
If you search for "Nolan Odyssey" on Xitter, you see that accounts like Hollywood Reporter, Nolan Archives and 60 Minutes are churning out puff piece after puff piece regarding the Odyssey. Like every few hours a new Nolan ass kiss article comes out.
Nolan and his Hollywood buddies are REALLY scared.
If anyone wants to check out something like this in terms of Greco-Roman mythology that's in line with how Mel Gibson would have tackled it, then the Italian made movie Romulus the First King and the TV show version called Romulus are worth checking out (both have different takes on the origin myth but the same production/creative team). They're both in Latin, however, the TV show version does have some woke nonsense, like a girlboss character that feels out of place since you know you can't have a passive female love interest anymore in modern media, but it doesn't completely kill the show. It's worth checking out if you like anything Roman related.
Thanks! The Empire was never my cup of tea. I like early Rome better and there are too few films about Romulus and Remus, Mucius Scaevola, Cloelia, the Horatii and the Curiatii and the abduction of the Sabine women.
A couple of hours ago I listened to a BBC Radio documentary on 2001: A Space Odyssey originally broadcast in 2018. One of the interviewees was a certain Christopher Nolan.
Unlike another interviewee who explicitly compared Kubrick film's journey through the, in 1968, unexplored space with mystical/mythical concepts with Homer's Poem's exploration of then unknown lands with mystical/mythical concepts, Nolan made no reference to The Odyssey at all. It's far from a smoking gun but it's at least an eyebrow raiser now that Nolan, in the context of marketing his own film, claims he has been driven to film Homer's Odyssey for 20 years or more.
He did address how much he valued and appreciated the soundtrack and specifically the choice of classical music rather than anything contemporary. His reasoning was that it gave Kubrick's film a timeless quality. I'm trying to reconcile that with his current position of refusing an orchestral soundtrack in favour of synthesisers and rap/trap for Homer's Odyssey or, for that matter, relying on very "current day" translations and concepts.
The more Nolan speaks the more it seems that his reputation as an intellectual auteur driving for authenticity seems to be a crock of shite.
A couple of hours ago I listened to a BBC Radio documentary on 2001: A Space Odyssey originally broadcast in 2018. One of the interviewees was a certain Christopher Nolan.
Unlike another interviewee who explicitly compared Kubrick film's journey through the, in 1968, unexplored space with mystical/mythical concepts with Homer's Poem's exploration of then unknown lands with mystical/mythical concepts, Nolan made no reference to The Odyssey at all. It's far from a smoking gun but it's at least an eyebrow raiser now that Nolan, in the context of marketing his own film, claims he has been driven to film Homer's Odyssey for 20 years or more.
He did address how much he valued and appreciated the soundtrack and specifically the choice of classical music rather than anything contemporary. His reasoning was that it gave Kubrick's film a timeless quality. I'm trying to reconcile that with his current position of refusing an orchestral soundtrack in favour of synthesisers and rap/trap for Homer's Odyssey or, for that matter, relying on very "current day" translations and concepts.
The more Nolan speaks the more it seems that his reputation as an intellectual auteur driving for authenticity seems to be a crock of shite.
He did address how much he valued and appreciated the soundtrack and specifically the choice of classical music rather than anything contemporary. His reasoning was that it gave Kubrick's film a timeless quality. I'm trying to reconcile that with his current position of refusing an orchestral soundtrack in favour of synthesisers and rap/trap for Homer's Odyssey or, for that matter, relying on very "current day" translations and concepts.
The more Nolan speaks the more it seems that his reputation as an intellectual auteur driving for authenticity seems to be a crock of shite.
Considering that rap, trap music and even Travis Scott himself are a slowly dying trend, this point never made sense. The “current year” political stuff died on the vine when people realized there was more important to focus on. So this idea of being “timeless” makes no sense because you can never know when something’s “time” runs out.
I'd pick Elena Kampouris, Efie Kiouki or Zeta Makrypoulia after Googling. Some people I follow are demanding Sydney Sweeney for two very big, obvious reasons but she's too tanned to be Helen. She would make a nice Calypso or Circe though. And a killer Aphrodite if this was the Iliad. Chris Sarandon, Billy Zane, Jenifer Anniston, John Stamos or Zach Galfiniakis should be in this flick by "representation is key" logic even if it's some bit part. Even Half-Greek, Half-Pinoy Dave Bautista would be a good Laestrygonian leader or Polyphemus if he roided up again.
As a kid I was obsessed with those usually low budget, mostly Italian sword and sandal films from the 50s and 60s. They were my Classical mythology gateway drug as I only watched Hercules and Xena out of boredom or for the cheesecake because they butchered the source material too much. So this insult feels very personal. I know that they basically ran out of stuff to adapt back then but the most famous stories (the Twelve Labours, the Iliad+Little Iliad, the Odyssey, the Argonautica, the Aeneid and so on) could be remade in a decent, Non-Netflixed way and a handful of myths have never been adapted. Like the tale of Bellerophon, the hunt for the Calydonian boar, Pelops' legend or everything Theseus did in addition to his visit to Crete. To impersonate a Redditor again: "the Argonautica would totes be their Infinity War and Endgame because you have like all these heroes heckin' awesome heroing around in their own movies before stepping on the Argo's deck!!!" All this could've been a solid, epic cinematic universe...
I think they won't go that far. Critics will defend the cast to the death, but they will certainly throw Nolan under the bus by claiming that the script sucked and Nolan stepping out of the noir genre and doing a sword and sandal epic was a mistep of epic proportions.
Nolan is due a flop, especially after Tenant had build in excuse of COVID to fall back on as to why it didn't do well. And as an added bonus, Odessy bombing could create the necessary pressure to force Nolan back to Warner Bros for another round of Batman films with Bale, as condition for Warner bankrolling his non cap work again.
So this movie is supposedly totally super duper epic and awesome.
But note how boring the monsters in the trailer are. They are barely visible and the bits we can see are generic with the same dull colors as everything else.
I know it's only a trailer, but if the trailer is boring then the chance that the movie can deliever something better is very slim.
I think most of the movie is talking. Hell, according to the Times article, the Sirens are fucking psychoanalyzing Odysseus!
Instead of a mesmerizing Siren song the audience is forced to listen to psychological bullshit and Travis Scott is probably rapping in the background.
Also remember Nolan admitted it's a character study of Odysseus. Which means lots of time has to be spend on his character and the relationships to other characters instead of his adventures (which means lots of flashbacks and scenes where people talk). You can't focus on adventure and character study at the same time when it comes to the Odyssey.
This is the main reason why I believe this movie will bomb. The wokeness, bad costumes, dull colors, boring visuals and awful dialoge have already driven many people away but the death blow is boredom. People who are still hopeful expect an entertaining fantasy epic.
But this was never Nolan's goal in the first place.
If Christopher Nolan casts himself like guillermo del toro does in a minor role, and gets pegged by ellen pages rot dog, then I will personally go watch this movie. If he doesn't do that, then instant flop and the chuds win by default.
If anyone wants to check out something like this in terms of Greco-Roman mythology that's in line with how Mel Gibson would have tackled it, then the Italian made movie Romulus the First King and the TV show version called Romulus are worth checking out (both have different takes on the origin myth but the same production/creative team). They're both in Latin, however, the TV show version does have some woke nonsense, like a girlboss character that feels out of place since you know you can't have a passive female love interest anymore in modern media, but it doesn't completely kill the show. It's worth checking out if you like anything Roman related.
A rather interesting "female centric" story from antiquity that could never be told be the "Wives of the Mamertines".
Long story short, a bunch of Greek mercenaries called the Mamertines were hired by the Despot of Sicily to fight one of his wars. But when he lost they were left unpaid and idle. So they marched up to Messina, captured the city, killed all the men and took all the women as their wives. Ironically, its implied the women civilized their new "husbands", who after a few decades of being pirates and raiders settled down to just running their new households and Messina became just another town again.
Naturally there is no way a "modern writer" could accurately explain the civilizing role of women in society in this context. Especially since they would have to ask the uncomfortable question as to why the women of Messina didn't just slit their new husbands throats rather then passively accept the change in circumstance.
So this film will do well based off Nolan's name at least initially, and I assume will look good. Everything that plays of Nolan's skills as a director will be well done. Which will fool the normie audience into liking it, for at least a little while. The movie will probably not have massive legs and you'll see the fallout in the box office for Nolan's next film. There will also be the usual drama when something like this happens and in five years and millions of YouTube videos later, everyone will agree it was bad.
However, Nolan could win everyone back with a post credits phone video of a bunch of film execs watching aghast at a screening. One going, "well that was awful." Then it fades to black and 'Christopher Nolan will return in The Producers" appears on the screen. If this whole thing was some kind of scam, then I can appreciate the hustle. However, the world isn't that fun and it just shows that Nolan has bad instincts.
