CinemaCon 2023: Christopher Nolan unveils new ‘Oppenheimer’ footage

Universal started out its CinemaCon presentation with the big one: new footage from Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer

Universal started out its CinemaCon presentation with the big one: new footage from Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.

“I know of no more dramatic tale, with higher stakes, twists and turns, paradoxes,” Nolan told a room full of theatre owners in Las Vegas. “In learning about that story, I wanted to be in that room and see what that must have been like.”

Oppenheimer, due in cinemas on July 21, is about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the brilliant, charismatic physicist who, along with his peers at Los Alamos, developed the atomic bomb and changed the world. Cillian Murphy, a frequent Nolan collaborator going back to Batman Begins, plays the title role in a starry cast that includes Matt Damon, Emily Blunt and many more.

“Like it or not, he is the most important person who ever lived. He made the world we live in for better or worse. His story has to be seen to be believed,” Nolan said. “His story is both dream and nightmare.” Nolan shot the movie on large format IMAX in both colour and black and white, but “not too much black and white, don’t worry,” he said.

Oppenheimer marks the first time Nolan has partnered with Universal after he parted ways with his longtime studio Warner Bros. amid the shop’s divisive pivot to streaming for its 2022 releases. The filmmaker has always been a passionate defender and advocate for movie theatres, and Oppenheimer will be no different, with 70mm IMAX, 35mm, Dolby Vision and other premium large-format screen versions available around the world. Nolan also said he could neither confirm nor deny that a full-length trailer will play in front of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which opens May 5.

The Universal team, including filmed entertainment group chairman Donna Langley, assembled in Las Vegas for the annual conference just days after news broke that Jeff Shell, the chief executive of NBCUniversal and one of the media industry’s renowned executives, was leaving the company after an investigation into inappropriate conduct. Shell oversaw a vast portfolio of assets including the motion picture company. Previously he was chairman of NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment. As of Wednesday, parent company Comcast had not yet named a successor.

The film studio team has been basking in the recent box office success of Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which has already made over $900 million at the global box office. It will be the first movie to pass $1 billion in 2023, a landmark it will hit this coming week, Langley said.