Christopher Nolan‘s highly-anticipated summer blockbuster is one step closer to exploding onscreen.
The latest trailer for “Oppenheimer” captures the emotional implosion behind the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), as he creates the ultimate weapon amid World War II. Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Kenneth Branagh, Rami Malek, Casey Affleck, Gary Oldman, James Remar, Josh Hartnett, and Alden Ehrenreich also star in the ensemble period piece.
Based on Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s Oppenheimer biography “American Prometheus,” the film is billed as a character study centered around the Manhattan Project. The 1945 bombings of Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed more than 200,000 people, many of them civilians. Physicist Oppenheimer later became an advocate for controlling nuclear power after creating the atomic bomb.
Lead star Murphy opened up about the film being a “huge responsibility” to accurately represent Oppenheimer’s complexities.
“[J. Robert Oppenheimer] was complicated and contradictory and so iconic,” Murphy said. “But you know you’re with one of the great directors of all time. I felt confident going into it with Chris [Nolan]. He’s had a profound impact on my life, creatively and professionally. He’s offered me very interesting roles over and I’ve found all of them really challenging. And I just love being on his sets.”
Director Nolan recreated the first nuclear weapon detonation in the Trinity test without the use of computer graphics, which the “Tenet” helmer admitted was a “huge challenge to take on.”
“Andrew Jackson — my visual effects supervisor, I got him on board early on — was looking at how we could do a lot of the visual elements of the film practically, from representing quantum dynamics and quantum physics to the Trinity test itself, to recreating, with my team, Los Alamos up on a mesa in New Mexico in extraordinary weather, a lot of which was needed for the film, in terms of the very harsh conditions out there – there were huge practical challenges,” Nolan shared. “It’s one of the most challenging projects I’ve ever taken on in terms of the scale of it, and in terms of encountering the breadth of Oppenheimer’s story.”
“Oppenheimer” is the first feature film ever to be shot using a combination of IMAX black and white analog photography on 65mm and 65mm film photography. Nolan’s first feature with Universal Pictures, “Oppenheimer” clocks in at almost three hours.
“Oppenheimer” premieres July 21 in theaters. Check out the trailer below and click here for more details.
