‘Greatest director out there’: Nolan fans fly into London to see The Odyssey at BFI Imax
Odysseus made his name by embarking on a perilous journey from Troy to Ithaca, plus a few unplanned diversions courtesy of the gods. But this
Odysseus made his name by embarking on a perilous journey from Troy to Ithaca, plus a few unplanned diversions courtesy of the gods. But this is nothing on Christian Campbell, who last night travelled more than 4,000 miles to see the Greek king’s epic fable on the big screen. The 22-year-old film graduate, who aspires to be an editor, made the journey from Atlanta to London to watch Christopher Nolan’s take on Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey. Like many people gathered in the BFI Imax in south London before the film’s first midnight showing, he bought his ticket a year in advance. “I had originally planned on going to New York, but when the tickets dropped, they sold out immediately,” he says. He was also out of luck nabbing a ticket in Georgia. “I was like, the third best option is London.” Not only is it his first time in the British capital, it is the first time Campbell has left the US. While seeing The Odyssey on Nolan’s home turf was the initial reason behind coming to London, his aunt Donna joined him and they turned the trip into a holiday. BFI Imax, near Waterloo Bridge, is one of the few cinemas in the world that will show The Odyssey in Imax 1570 the highest-resolution film format in existence and the first feature film to be shot entirely on 1570 cameras. View image in fullscreen Friends Julian Jäger, Marco Garbely and Gilbert Oggier flew into London from Switzerland.
Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian Each weighs 180kg and Nolan worked with Imax to develop a soundproofing “blimp” to make it quiet enough for him to record dialogue on the heavy-duty cameras for the first time. While this has certainly not hemmed the films’s huge $250m (£186m) budget, it looks set to pay off. Box office predictions suggest The Odyssey could record $80m-$100m on its first weekend in North America alone. Campbell was eight when he watched his first (and favourite) Nolan film, The Dark Knight, despite it having a PG-13 rating. “My uncle played it for me and he would skip the bad parts,” he says. He has watched every other film by the director and had the same response: “Dang, that was awesome.” Also embarking on an epic journey was Marco Garbely, who travelled from Switzerland with his two friends, landing in London mere hours before rocking up to the BFI Imax wearing shirts commemorating their favourite director. The 30-year-old, who works in healthcare, says he was a bit nervous before the review embargo broke on Wednesday because “we have such high standards of him”. But his fears were allayed when the film debuted with a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (it has since fallen to a still mighty 96%). In a five-star review, the Guardian called it a “god-tier” breathtaking epic. He was also concerned that far-right criticism, including from Elon Musk, about Lupita Nyong’o’s casting as Helen could affect the reception of the film. “It’s quite forced.
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