In a major leap for large-format filmmaking, Christopher Nolan is preparing to release Odyssey, the first fully narrative feature captured exclusively with IMAX cameras.
Cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema revealed to Empire on March 17 that he conducted a specialized test shoot to confirm whether IMAX technology could now handle dialogue-driven scenes. For the experiment, he filmed a child reading lyrics from David Bowies Sound and Vision.
Van Hoytema noted that he later showed Nolan an IMAX close-up of the child reciting the lyrics, describing the moment as deeply moving, with an intimacy that emerged from the fusion of image and sound within the theater.
Nolan described the IMAX test as electrifying and emphasized that such shots had never been achievable before. Variety reported that the successful experiment proves IMAX cameras have finally overcome their long-standing limitation of excessive noise that prevented close-up dialogue recording. To solve this issue, engineers developed a new film casing called a blimp, dramatically reducing camera noise.
Nolan noted that the blimp system now allows usable sound to be captured while filming a whisper only 30 centimeters from an actors face, enabling the most intimate moments to be recorded in the most visually striking format. Since first using IMAX for partial action sequences in The Dark Knight in 2008, Nolan has steadily expanded its use across his films, culminating in the IMAX 65mm black-and-white breakthrough in the 2023 Academy Award winner Oppenheimer.
Hoyte Van Hoytema, the cinematographer behind Odyssey, has collaborated with Nolan on Interstellar, Dunkirk, Tenet, and Oppenheimer, earning an Oscar for the last. In an earlier Variety interview, Van Hoytema explained that because IMAX 65mm black-and-white film did not exist, he and Nolan began by asking Kodak if they could create it, while also redesigning the camera because the existing metal pressure plate risked light leaks due to the thinner film stock.
Odyssey, depicting the journey of Odysseus returning home after the Trojan War, features Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, and Lupita Nyongo. The film is scheduled for release on July 17, 2026.
