If you’ve ever sat in a true IMAX theater watching films like The Dark Knight, Dune: Part Two, or Oppenheimer and thought, “Why can’t the whole movie look like this?”, you’re not alone.
Director Christopher Nolan heard you, and now he’s doing something no one else in Hollywood has managed to pull off.
For decades, directors have only used IMAX’s massive 1.43:1 format for select sequences. The cameras were too bulky, too loud, and just too impractical to roll for an entire feature, especially one with lots of dialogue.
But Nolan, never one to back down from a technical challenge, asked IMAX to rethink that entirely. And they did. IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond revealed at Cannes this week:
“Chris called me up and said If you can figure out how to solve the problems, we will make [The Odyssey] 100 percent in IMAX. And that’s what we’re doing. He forced us to rethink that side of our business, our film recorders, our film cameras.”
What came out of that collaboration is a set of smaller, substantially lighter IMAX film cameras, reportedly 30% quieter than their predecessors. These new models are being used right now to film The Odyssey, making it the first major Hollywood blockbuster to be shot entirely in native IMAX 1.43:1 film format.
To put this in perspective, while plenty of movies advertise as being shot for IMAX, most of them use digital IMAX cameras that don’t fill the full screen in an IMAX theater. Other movies mix formats, jumping between widescreen and the square-ish, towering IMAX frame.
Nolan was one of the pioneers of that technique, first using it in The Dark Knight. But now, he’s pushing the format into entirely new territory.
And it won’t stop with The Odyssey. Once Nolan wraps production, these new cameras will become available to other filmmakers. That means this moment isn’t just a cool milestone, it will mark the beginning of a new wave in cinematic visual storytelling.
So what does this mean for moviegoers? If you’re lucky enough to live near one of the few true IMAX theaters that can project in 1.43:1, you’re going to want to plan ahead becauset those showing are for sure going to sell out.
Universal has described the film as a “mythic action epic shot across the world using brand new Imax film technology. The film brings Homer’s foundational saga to Imax film screens for the first time.”
The Odyssey follows Odysseus’ 10-year journey home from the Trojan War, encountering a cyclops, sirens, a sea monster, and more along the way. Meanwhile, back in Ithaca, his wife Penelope must fend off suitors vying for the throne in his absence.
Starring Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson and Charlize Theron, as well as Mia Goth, Jon Bernthal, Elliot Page, Samantha Morton, John Leguizamo, Will Yun Lee, Benny Safdie, Himesh Patel and Bill Irwin.
The Odyssey opens July 17, 2026.
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