The Odyssey's Makers Reveal the Cave, the Costumes and the Cutting Room

Christopher Nolan wanted the Cyclops to be physically present in the cave for the Polyphemus scene in The Odyssey, the film's department heads told a festival audience. Variety reported the remarks from the Middleburg Film Festival, where the three artisans were also honoured with Variety's Creative Collaborators Award.

The honourees are production designer Ruth De Jong, costume designer Ellen Mirojnick and editor Jennifer Lame. Variety senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay led the conversation with them. The Odyssey is Nolan's adaptation of Homer's ancient Greek epic poem, and it follows his Oscar-winning film Oppenheimer.

The scale of the physical work stands out. De Jong's team built practical sets, meaning real structures rather than digitally created ones, in six countries: Morocco, Greece, Italy, Iceland, Scotland and the United States. Mirojnick and her team created more than 5,300 costumes.

Lame's part happened later, in the editing room. She cut 2.1 million feet of 70mm IMAX film. The 70mm format is a wide film stock, and IMAX is a large-screen system. The Middleburg festival lists the film as shot on 70mm IMAX film.

Nolan's working relationships shaped the team. De Jong had already worked with him on Oppenheimer. Lame edited both Tenet and Oppenheimer for him. For this project, Nolan invited Mirojnick and Lame to his house to read the script together.

Nolan has spoken about the adaptation too. In a July interview with Reuters, he described how he approached moving the story from text to screen.

Each of these choices passed through many hands before an audience saw them. A cave set in Morocco or Iceland, a costume built for a camera that shoots 70mm, a cut that runs to millions of feet of film: each is the result of people deciding what the picture should look like and how it should move. For most viewers, those decisions stay hidden until the lights go down.