Matt Damon was planning to take a break from acting before Christopher Nolan called for ‘Oppenheimer’

Ben Affleck had a little involvement in helping Matt Damon prepare for his role in Oppenheimer - through his grandfather.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Thirteen years later and Christopher Nolan is still being hounded with questions about the ending of “Inception,” his acclaimed 2010 action thriller about a group of criminals who pull off a dream heist. The ending is notorious. Leonardo DiCaprio’s Cobb has completed his task and returns home to his children, but the film lingers on his spinning totem top as it begins to wobble. Cut to black. If the top spins indefinitely, Cobb is still dreaming. If it falls, Cobb is awake in the real world. Moviegoers have spent over a decade debating whether or not Cobb is awake or dreaming at the end of “Inception,” but Nolan recently said on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast that such debates are missing the ending’s real takeaway: Cobb doesn’t care.

So many actors have bad kiss stories, and Emily Blunt has some helpful advice for anyone who is looking to make their on-screen kisses more enjoyable for all parties involved.

Cillian Murphy is opening up about filming sex scenes with Florence Pugh for their new movie Oppenheimer.

Robert Downey Jr. is opening up about the tattoo he shares with his fellow original Avengers.

In the battle of Barbenheimer, only one major motion picture can rule the double feature — and she’s dazzling in pretty pink plastic.Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” raked in $22.3 million at the box office in previews, compared to $10.5 million garnered by “Oppenheimer” ahead of the films’ official debut on Friday, Variety reports.Despite Gerwig’s fears that the hyper-feminine flick would end her career, “Barbie” has turned into a summer smash.At the box office, the film out-performed the former record-holder “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” which earned $17.5 million in previews in May.The Post has reached out to representatives for Gerwig, 39, for comment.“Barbie” is expected to reach $100 million at the box office in its opening weekend, while Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” is only anticipated to haul half of that, an estimated $50 million, per Variety.Eager audiences have long planned to view both back to back for a whopping five hours of screen time.

Movie fans flooded cinemas today for the release of two of the most hotly anticipated films this year. Known as 'Barbenheimer', July 21, 2023 marked the day hundreds of movie-goers came out in full force to watch Greta Gerwig's twist on the popular children's toy, Barbie and Christopher Nolan's dramatic retelling of the life of the father of the atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer.

The weekend of “Barbenheimer” has arrived.

Jason Aldean backlash: Country singer, wife Brittany fight back amid controversies. ‘This Is Us’ star Mandy Moore says she's received 'very tiny' residual checks for the show. Kevin Costner's estranged wife isn't ready to cough up cash as she vacations in Hawaii.

Matt Damon described a scene where he had to kiss Scarlett Johansson as “hell,” and he shared the funny story about why it went so poorly.

The line from many fans and pundits, at least online, is that Christopher Nolan, currently promoting his “Oppenheimer” movie is that he will eventually direct a James Bond film. I’ve always felt that was wrong.

Greta Gerwig has for the first time addressed her plans to write and direct multiple films based on The Chronicles of Narnia books from C.S. Lewis, admitting that the prospect is fairly unnerving.

Christopher Nolan and Cillian Murphy joined forces on the highly anticipated war film "Oppenheimer," and Murphy admitted he felt "pressure" collaborating with the famed British-American director. Although the two have worked together in Hollywood for more than 20 years, Murphy, 47, said he "for sure" felt an overwhelming responsibility to perform his best in Nolan’s latest film. "Pressure is good because it pushes you...

Robert Downey Sr., the younger Downey made his acting debut at age five, playing the ironic role of a sick puppy n his father’s film “Pound.” Downey Jr. found early success as an adjunct member of the Brat Pack, starring in the nihilist classic “Less Than Zero.” He earned his first Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Charlie Chaplin in the eponymous film. Downey has famously, and publicly, battled substance abuse, spending much of the 90’s and early aughts in and out of treatment centers and correctional facilities before finally getting sober in 2003 and making the unlikely leap from getting high to becoming the highest paid actor in Hollywood.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor There’s a moment in “Barbie” where Ryan Gosling, who plays the wickedly funny and insecure manchild, Ken, steps off the screen and yells, “Sublime!” It might be the most extraordinary Oscar-worthy clip of a person not to be seen on screen. “Barbie,” the new meta-comedy from Warner Bros, which also acts as an infomercial for Mattel, finally lands for audiences and could be one of the leading comedy films seeking Oscar recognition by year’s end if Academy members can take it seriously. Gosling’s iconic turn, at least, is worthy of best supporting actor recognition. Commercial comedies, particularly those without the added “dramedy” sub-qualifier, have faced difficulty landing Academy recognition for decades (i.e., Vince Vaughn in “Wedding Crashers”). However, a promising trend has been seen in the last few years with acting nominees like Robert Downey Jr in “Tropic Thunder” (2008), Melissa McCarthy in “Bridesmaids” (2011) and Maria Bakalova in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” (2020) landing comfortably in their respective fields. Gosling could join the ranks.

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”.

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 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.

Robert Downey Jr. has revealed that he’s a fan of Sleaford Mods.While promoting his new film Oppenheimer, the actor appeared alongside director Christopher Nolan in an autocomplete interview for Wired.During the interview, Downey Jr.

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.

Though Christopher Nolan was “nervous” to direct his first-ever sex scenes for “Oppenheimer”, the filmmaker felt they were “essential” to the film’s story, based on theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer’s life and his role in the development of the atomic bomb.

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.

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.

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).

Christian Bale famously played Batman in Christopher Nolan‘s acclaimed Dark Knight trilogy. However, we recently learned that another actor was in the running for the part – Josh Hartnett.

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.

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.

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.