Matt Damon had to break a promise to his wife to film ‘Oppenheimer’

Christopher Nolan‘s “Oppenheimer” finally hits theaters today, his first film since 2020’s “Tenet,” which saw an awkward theatrical release thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. No such worries for this movie, though, as it’s part of Hollywood’s meme-worthy one-two punch at the box-office with Greta Gerwig‘s “Barbie.” And while “Barbie” will surely win the box-office battle between the two films this weekend, “Oppenheimer” has the lead right now in critical consensus, sitting at a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes against a 90% for Gerwig’s latest.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Hey, if it ain’t broke — don’t fix it. Imax developed control software that emulates a two-decade-old PalmPilot PDA for the release of Christopher Nolan’s three-hour “Oppenheimer” epic. The 70mm Imax print of “Oppenheimer” comprises a whopping 11 miles of film stock weighing about 600 pounds, and required the company to build extensions to accommodate the larger size of the film platters. That’s because Imax’s existing platters could only hold enough film for a 150-minute runtime. Imax’s PalmPilot software runs the projection systems’ Quick Turn Reel Unit, which manages the operation and transition between multiple reels.

John Krasinski had quite the reaction after finding out Matt Damon had turned down 2009’s “Avatar”.

Jordan Moreau “Barbenheimer” is finally here. The biggest box office battle in years has begun, with Warner Bros.’ “Barbie” making $22.3 million at the domestic box office in Thursday previews. Universal’s “Oppenheimer” made $10.5 million in previews. The “Barbie” preview haul is the biggest of the summer box office, beating the previous best of $17.5 million from “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” “Barbenheimer” won’t be much of a showdown, however, as Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie’s “Barbie” is expected to have a huge debut of well over $100 million in its opening weekend — with some estimates as high as $140 million, thanks to its massive marketing efforts. The large preview gross suggests the opening weekend may be closer to the high-end of projections.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The double SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes are worrying exhibitors in France, where the box office is driven by Hollywood blockbusters. In an interview with French news channel BFM Business, Richard Patry, who presides over the National Federation of Cinemas, predicts “the strike might go on for a long time” because it’s aimed at streaming services. “Many U.S. films have already started to be delayed, and it worries us a lot for 2024,” Patry said. The dearth of U.S. releases during the pandemic hurt the French box office, which was down by about 30% in 2022. Even if French movies have a large market share domestically, U.S. blockbusters typically drive an upward trend. Case in point: the French B.O. finally recovered this year and has been up 33%, bolstered by a spike in anticipated American movies, which skyrocketed from 29 in 2022 to 51 in the first five months of 2023, according to Comscore France. 

Christopher Nolan's highly anticipated thriller Oppenheimer hits cinemas today. The movie stars Peaky Blinders actor Cillian Murphy, Iron Man Robert Downey Jr and Emily Blunt, and tells the story of the creation of the atomic bomb dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagaski.

All those naysayers fretting over the state of the box office are going to have to find something new to complain about after Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” and Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” arrive in theaters this weekend. Yes, “Barbenheimer” is finally here and both films are looking at a combined $150 to $170 million (or maybe more) over the three-day span (and that’s just in the U.S.).

Christopher Nolan has said it would be “an amazing privilege” to direct a James Bond film.While appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the Oppenheimer director was asked by host Josh Horowitz if he’d like to try his hand at the iconic spy franchise.“The influence of those movies in my filmography is embarrassingly apparent. It would be an amazing privilege to do one,” Nolan said.

Follow OK! on Threads here: https://www.threads.net/@ok_mag The highly anticipated blockbuster thriller, Oppenheimer, has been released in cinemas today, 21 July, with Cillian Murphy starring in the leading role.The 47-year-old, who is known for his iconic role in Peaky Blinders, looks totally different having transformed into J Robert Oppenheimer for the Christopher Nolan-directed film.The thriller follows the scientist developing the first atomic bomb as part of the secret Manhattan Project.The Irish favourite has become a staple on our screens over the years, having starred in films such as Batman Begins and Broken, so it's no surprise he landed yet another leading role. Yet Cillian is a notoriously private person – so here's a look at his life away from the cameras... Cillian hails from County Cork, Ireland, and currently lives in Dublin with his wife, Yvonne McGuinness and their two sons, Malachy, 17, and Aran, 16.They live in a sprawling £1.5million home complete with six double bedrooms, located in the area of Monkstown.

One of the most anticipated films of 2023 has landed in UK cinemas as masses of fans head to theatres for front row tickets. ~Starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, there's been a huge buzz around the Barbie movie ahead of its release.

EXCLUSIVE: The box office event of the year which has Warner Bros. mass female attraction, Barbie, and Universal’s Christopher Nolan directed, Oppenheimer, has officially fired off its confetti guns with the movies seeing respectively an estimated $20M and $9M+ from their previews. Again, these numbers could fluctuate by morning.

Director Christopher Nolan said he once considered a couple of his Oppenheimer cast members for a very different role – Batman.

Christopher Nolan‘s new movie Oppenheimer is a three-hour long epic and you might be wondering if that run time includes a post-credits scene.

While there’s been much debate over “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer”‘s box office film projections — given their shared release date — the two films happen to have something else in common, far more unexpected.

Christopher Nolan delivers his first biographical epic in Oppenheimer.Based on the book American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, the film follows the life of theoretical physicist J.

Christopher Nolan delivers his first biographical epic in Oppenheimer.Based on the book American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, the film follows theoretical physicist J.

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer has been released – check it out below.Based on the book American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, the film follows the life of theoretical physicist J.

If you’re seeing Oppenheimer on the big screen, you might want to get there early as certain screenings will not be showing any trailers… and there’s a fascinating reason.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director While “Oppenheimer” has been touted as Christopher Nolan’s first biopic, that’s not necessarily true. It’s only the director’s first biopic to hit the big screen. Decades ago, Nolan wrote the screenplay for a biopic about aviator and business tycoon Howard Hughes, but the project never took flight because Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Hughes, beat him to it. Nolan told The Daily Beast in 2007 that his Hughes biopic was the best script he’d written, and he even lined up Jim Carrey to star as Hughes. Nolan said Hughes was the role that Carrey was “born to play.” Nolan’s Howard Hughes movie never materialized, but learning how to distill the life of an iconic American figure into a movie script would pay off years later when it came time to penning “Oppenheimer.”

Cillian Murphy and Christopher Nolan are marking their sixth collaboration with Oppenheimer, the biographical epic about the titular complicated and brilliant physicist tasked with leading the Manhattan Project, the secret effort to create the atom bomb, and the moral and political struggles that followed. This is the first time Murphy, who plays Oppenheimer, is essaying a lead role for Nolan – “Finally!”, as he enthuses with a wink below.

Refresh for more …The first Indian film, Project K, to make its grand debut in Hall H made a lot of noise –a lot — today with a grand musical number that rivaled Amazon Prime Video’s Lord of the Rings orchestra and choral last year.

Matt Damon has recalled having to kiss Scarlett Johansson for a scene after she ate an onion sandwich.The pair starred together in the 2011 film We Bought A Zoo, and Damon made the revelation in a new interview.He and his Oppenheimer co-star Emily Blunt were playing a game during a video interview with LadBible where they had to agree or disagree with posed statements.After receiving the statement: “You should tell someone if they have bad breath,” Damon told the story of having to kiss Johansson on set after she ate an onion sandwich for lunch, joking that it was “hell” and adding: “Can you image how horrible that was for me?”He added: “We went to lunch and she and I both thought it was over. She ate an onion sandwich for lunch and she came in and Cameron Crowe had set the camera up and it was a tight shot of the kiss, and she goes, ‘Oh shit, I literally just had an onion sandwich!’.”Elsewhere, Damon has revealed that he was planning to take a break from acting when he got a call from Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer.Speaking to Entertainment Weekly as part of EW‘s Around The Table interview with the rest of the Oppenheimer cast, Damon revealed that he had negotiated with his wife to take a break from acting unless Nolan called him up for a role.“This is going to sound made up, but it’s actually true,” Damon said to his cast mates.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Josh Hartnett revealed to Playboy magazine in 2015 that he talked with Christopher Nolan about taking on the role of the Caped Crusader in the director’s “Batman Begins,” which launched Warner Bros.’ billion-dollar grossing “Dark Knight” trilogy. How far did those talks go before Nolan settled on Christian Bale instead? In a new interview on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, Nolan confirmed talks with Hartnett took place, but his casting never got too serious. “No, it never got that far,” Nolan said when asked if he screen-tested Hartnett for the role of Batman. “I met with Josh and if I recall, he was a young actor whose work I was very interested in,” Nolan added. “I had an initial conversation with him but he had read my brother’s script for ‘The Prestige’ at the time and was more interested in getting involved with that. So it never went further than that.”

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor “Oppenheimer” has burst into the Oscar race. With the earnest and urgent cultural fabric of “To Kill a Mockingbird” and the philosophical measure of “The Tree of Life,” writer, director and producer Christopher Nolan’s chronicle of the creation of the most destructive weapon ever used stands as the most ambitious and vital piece of filmmaking of his career. Adapted from the book “American Prometheus” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, “Oppenheimer” tells the complicated and morally fraught story of American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer who led the effort to develop the atomic bomb. Nolan and his stellar ensemble of actors have amassed 27 Oscar nominations collectively throughout their careers. One of those who surprisingly hasn’t nabbed one is Irish actor Cillian Murphy, who plays the titular scientist. With dry wit and womanizing charm that effectively makes him the scientific version of Michael Fassbender in “Shame,” Murphy is an effective vehicle to lead the viewer through through reams of scientific terminology. In addition, his tour-de-force performance, which is sure to be in real consideration for best actor, is best displayed when showcasing the emotional toll such a creation can have on a person. Lead actors from competitive best picture players, especially from biopics, have been consistently recognized over the past few decades in Oscar history (see Benedict Cumberbatch for “The Imitation Game” or Christian Bale for “American Hustle”). Murphy could find his time has come after decades of memorable turns in “28 Days Later” (2002) and “Breakfast on Pluto” (2006).

Jenna Ortega‘s new film is one of very few set to continue production through the Hollywood actors’ strike.The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) began a strike last week. The union, which represents 160,000 actors and performers, are seeking an increase in base pay and residuals in the age of streaming, along with safeguards against the unregulated use of artificial intelligence in the industry.This means that many projects in Hollywood have currently paused production, and will continue to do so until the strike ends.However, Ortega’s new film Death Of A Unicorn – an A24 production – has been given permission to restart production.The film stars Ortega and Paul Rudd as a father and daughter duo who run over a unicorn, and will see work continue due to SAG-AFTRA giving approval to the continued production of films from studios or companies not represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).The actors’ strike coincides with the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike, which began on May 2 and halted production on a number of projects.

anticipation, Christopher Nolan's latest motion picture is being released to theaters Friday, July 21., starring Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, tells the story of the brilliant J. Robert Oppenheimer, who was pivotal in the creation of the nuclear bomb.

Christopher Nolan’s highly-anticipated and highly-reviewed Oppenheimer has begun overseas rollout with strong results versus some of the director’s previous titles. On Wednesday, the Universal film opened in 10 offshore markets, grossing $2.4M and led by France and Indonesia. These are early days as the critically-lauded Cillian Murphy-led biographical drama/political thriller will be playing a total 78 markets through Friday, across over 9,600 locations, 13,000 screens, and more than 320 IMAX screens.

anticipation, Christopher Nolan's latest motion picture is being released to theaters Friday, July 21., starring Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, tells the story of the brilliant J. Robert Oppenheimer, who was pivotal in the creation of the nuclear bomb.

Christopher Nolan’s brother Matthew Nolan was previously accused of being a hitman in 2009.The famed director, whose 12th feature film Oppenheimer arrives in cinemas this week, has two brothers; his younger brother Jonathan Nolan (known for co-creating Westworld) and an older sibling called Matthew Nolan.The latter was previously arrested and charged in 2009 for the murder of accountant Robert Cohen in Costa Rica. A judge, however, refused to extradite Nolan to Costa Rica to stand trial on kidnapping and murder charges, ruling that there wasn’t sufficient evidence that he was a contracted killer.As summarised in court documents, a man named Luis Alonso Douglas Mejia was initially convicted of the murder in 2005, but Costa Rica claimed Nolan was involved as a “hired killer”.“Costa Rica contends that Mejia contacted the accused [Nolan] and for a still undetermined amount of money, hired his services, both of them planning the manner in which they would deprive the victim of his freedom, in order to later murder him,” a summary on casetext reads.As reported by Q Costa Rica in 2014, Nolan is said to have been introduced to Cohen in 2005 by millionaire gem dealer Robert Breska.

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. More than 40,000 people have purchased tickets to see “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” on the same day, according to AMC Theatres — a double feature dubbed the “Barbenheimer.” If you’re one of the movie lovers planning a back-to-back screening this weekend, then you’re well aware that no detail is insignificant when constructing an optimal viewing experience. Only the perfect curation of snacks and beverages and outfit choices will help you endure (enjoy!) the five hour-plus viewing experience (“Oppenheimer” runs at three hours; “Barbie” clocks in just under two).

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “Oppenheimer” composer Ludwig Göransson guesstimates there’s “about two and a half hours of music in the film,” which he recorded over the course of five days. The film marks his second collaboration with Christopher Nolan, after the pair first teamed up on 2020’s “Tenet.” Göransson describes the “Oppenheimer” score as “dynamic.” “Sometimes, it’s just the use of a singular instrument, and other times we bring in a whole ensemble. It fluctuates,” he says. Nolan’s most ambitious film, about the race to create a nuclear bomb during World War II, in turn became Göransson’s most ambitious score — it was different from anything he had done before.

told Insider. The dramatic departure from Nolan’s usual style — his films famously avoid sex and nudity — has fans hot and bothered. “Knowing Nolan he’ll sprinkle a dash of making out with a teaspoon of moaning and call it a day,” one fan snarked on social media.“I’m worried Christopher Nolan didn’t know what sex is and he had the actors stand naked pressing their thumbs to each others foreheads,” another joked. The movie, out July 21, is a biopic about J.

Christopher Nolan’s latest pic Oppenheimer launches into cinemas Friday, and while on the promotion rounds, the director once again was confronted with the age-old question: Would he ever direct a James Bond movie?

, every second counts. It only makes sense, then, that the  filmmakers would rely on heritage watch brand Hamilton to source its timepieces. The highly anticipated thriller tells the story of J.

Cillian Murphy has given fans a glimpse into his off the grid private life. Despite being the lead for one of the summer's biggest blockbusters, Murphy has previously admitted that he 'hates' the notoriety that comes with being a celeb.

Christopher Nolan delivers his first biographical epic in Oppenheimer.Based on the book American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, the film follows theoretical physicist J.