New images have surfaced for the anticipated drama from Christopher Nolan that tells the story of the inventor of the atomic bomb. The film, Oppenheimer, is Nolan’s follow-up feature after the mixed reception of his high-concept sci-fi — 2020’s Tenet. This will also be Nolan’s first film since leaving Warner Bros. over his displeasure with their temporary business model of releasing films simultaneously through theatrical and streaming venues.
Total Film has exclusive new images from Oppenheimer that have recently been revealed. These pictures showcase Cillian Murphy in his role as the titular character, J. Robert Oppenheimer. We also get a peek at his fellow cast members, Emily Blunt and Robert Downey Jr, as well as behind-the-scenes photos with Nolan directing. The rest of the cast includes actors such as Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, and Gary Oldman.
J. Robert Oppenheimer was “the theoretical physicist who oversaw the design of the first nuclear weapons during World War 2. The director of the Manhattan Project’s Los Alamos Laboratory, Oppenheimer would go on to feel conflicted about the power that he unleashed, and his post-war years were dogged by investigations into his earlier Communist Party associations.”
Cillian Murphy has already worked with Nolan on five occasions, including all three Batman movies, Inception and Dunkirk. However, this is his first leading role in one of Nolan’s films. Blunt was once offered a role in Inception, but she would turn it down in favor of the Jack Black comedy, Gulliver’s Travels. Here, she would be playing Oppenheimer’s wife, Kitty. Robert Downey Jr, who would rule the summer of 2008 in Iron Man along with Nolan’s The Dark Knight, plays Lewis Strauss, chairman of the US Atomic Enemy Commission, who would later clash bitterly with Oppenheimer.
In this newest issue of Total Film, Nolan introduces the film, based on the novel by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, titled American Prometheus. The cinematographer for the film is Hoyte van Hoytema, who worked with Nolan since his former go-to cinematographer, Wally Pfister, had decided to pursue a directing career with Transcendence. Hoytema would work with Nolan ever since Interstellar.