The anticipation that comes with every Christopher Nolan release is unmatched by almost any other director. The director’s next movie, Oppenheimer, is set to hit theaters in July of 2023, but fans are already getting excited about our first look at the trailer, which was attached to the release of Avatar: The Way of Water.
In the trailer, we see Cillian Murphy, a frequent collaborator of Nolan’s, take on the title role of J. Robert Oppenheimer alongside a cast that includes Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, and Robert Downey Jr. Nolan can essentially attract any star he wants at this point in his career, and with Oppenheimer, he’s assembled one of his starriest casts ever, which also includes Kenneth Branagh, Gary Oldman, Rami Malek, and Casey Affleck.
J. Robert Oppenheimer is best known as the inventor of the atomic bomb, and Oppenheimer will be an intimate look at the flaws and foibles of the man who is responsible for the creation of the deadliest weapon in the world. The trailer delves into some of that history, and also teases the moments of spectacle we are sure to see as well.
Indiewire reports that the budget for Oppenheimer is “only” $100 million, making it the lowest-budget movie that Nolan has made in decades. Despite that relatively modest budget (at least for Nolan), the director has also teased that the movie will feature the first recreation of a nuclear bomb exploding that doesn’t feature any digital effects.
“I think recreating the Trinity test [the first nuclear weapon detonation ever] without the use of computer graphics was a huge challenge to take on,” Nolan said in an interview with Total Film. “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.”
The trailer hints at that moment, but also knows that it doesn’t need to show too much. For most of his diehard fans, the fact that Christopher Nolan has made a new movie will be more than enough to get them in theaters. Add in an incredible cast and Nolan’s return to the time period around World War II, and Oppenheimer is likely to be one of the most anticipated releases of 2023.
Oppenheimer will hit theaters on July 21, 2023, the same day as Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, which also debuted a trailer before the Avatar sequel.
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