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‘Oppenheimer’: Check Out the First Look at the New WWII Film

Christopher Nolan has started production on his new WWII film, “Oppenheimer.” Universal Pictures released the first look at Cillian Murphy as the titular J. Robert Oppenheimer, theoretical physicist and head of the Los Alamos Laboratory during wartime. He aided in the Manhattan Project, and helped develop the first nuclear weapons.

The film also stars Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Rami Malek, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, and Kenneth Branagh, among others. “Oppenheimer” is based off of the book “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.

This film is a departure for Nolan, not because of its content – he’s used to making the occasional big-budget war film, after all – but because he’s working with Universal Pictures instead of exclusively Warner Bros. He’s worked with Warner Bros. for the past 20 years, but since they decided to put more emphasis on streaming, Nolan has moved on. Definitely their loss.

Knowing Christopher Nolan, the photo of Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer is likely the only teaser for the film we’re going to get. He’s notoriously tight-lipped; unless there are other character portraits on the way, this might be the only promo we see for a while. Currently, the film has a budget of $100 million and is set to release on July 21, 2023.

Universal Takes a Big Risk on Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’

There’s just not a lot of draw for original films anymore, and $100 million is a lot of money. So, there’s risk involved with “Oppenheimer.” Will there be reward?

Universal knows what its doing because Christopher Nolan is such a big name in filmmaking. They can take the risk that he’s going to produce something fantastic because he usually does. He has films like “Inception” and “Dunkirk” to back him up at the box office. “Tenet” didn’t do that well, to be honest, but it was released at the height of COVID, so you can’t really blame it.

What Christopher Nolan can do well, is take original concepts and turn them into big-budget films. He’s no stranger to WWII stories, except this one isn’t wholly original. He’s got to make an audience care about a theoretical physicist who died in 1967 and worked on the atomic bomb during WWII. What audiences are going to ask is, why should we care? Nolan has to make us care. I think he can definitely do that, and it has to do with his previous works.

People love “Inception.” It’s an undeniable masterpiece. And, because Nolan wrote “Inception,” people are going to care about “Oppenheimer.” It all comes down to his brand. If people are willing to give him another shot after “Tenet,” then “Oppenheimer” can be a real success.