Christopher Nolan takes viewers behind the scenes of the intimate process of putting together an Imax film in a ‘60 Minutes‘ interview about “The Odyssey.”
In one of two clips exclusively obtained by Variety, Nolan says to “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley, “In taking on ‘The Odyssey,’ it does become about scale. It needed to be the biggest film that we had done. It needed to be challenging to all of us, because that’s the nature of the story.
“Looks like you nearly drowned Matt Damon,” Pelley says upon seeing a clip of Matt Damon as Odysseus commanding a ship through stormy waters. Laughing, Nolan replies, “We certainly put him through his paces.” In a separate interview, Damon concurs: “It was the hardest movie I’ve ever done by far. Not even close.”
In the second clip, Pelley explains in voiceover that “The Odyssey” is the first movie in history to be filmed entirely on Imax as Nolan demonstrates his process — literally cutting and gluing frames together — at the world’s last film lab of its kind.
“When Nolan was 16, he saw an Imax documentary at a museum and was spellbound by the five-story screen,” Pelley says. “But Imax is expensive and cumbersome. Digital photography and editing are faster and cheaper, so almost no one does this anymore.”
“Why keep this ancient art alive? Well, the 70mm Imax frame has resolution or image quality up to three times higher than digital,” Pelley continues. “Art — the hard way.”
Nolan’s “60 Minutes” interview will air on Sunday at 7 p.m. on CBS and stream on Paramount+.
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