Christopher Nolan appears to be moving full steam ahead with his next feature. Now, award-winning actress Emily Blunt will be joining Nolan's Oppenheimer film.
The Universal project will center on theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who will be played by longtime Nolan collaborator Cillian Murphy, and his involvement with the creation of the atom bomb. Blunt will reunite with Murphy, who she worked with on the critically acclaimed A Quiet Place Part II.
Although this will be Blunt's first time working with the visionary Nolan, she is no stranger to epic blockbusters. Other than her success with the A Quiet Place franchise, she has starred in Rian Johnson's mind-bending sci-fi Looper, fought alongside Tom Cruise as a soldier in Edge of Tomorrow, and also played an FBI agent in Denis Villeneuve's crime thriller Sicario. Blunt recently appeared in Disney's adventure film Jungle Cruise with Dwayne Johnson. Deadline first broke the news of Blunt joining the Oppenheimer film.
Nolan is known for building relationships with the same actors over numerous films, so this could potentially be the start of a long-time collaboration between Blunt and Nolan. Murphy, who auditioned for the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Nolan's 2005 Batman Begins, was eventually cast as the fearful Scarecrow in that film and its sequels. Murphy would then go on to appear in Nolan's other works including Inception and Dunkirk.
Oppenheimer will mark Nolan's return to the history of World War ll after his work on Dunkirk, though this new project will take place in America rather than in France. Universal Pictures will be releasing the upcoming biopic after Nolan's departure from Warner Bros. Nolan's most recent film, Tenet, was released by Warner Bros. in August 2020 during the height of the pandemic, when moviegoers were still uncertain about the safety of movie theatres and a vaccine was not yet available. Tenet's poor performance at the box office, combined with the director's frustration with Warner Bros.' new hybrid model of having its 2021 films premiere on the HBO MAX streaming service simultaneously with their theatrical release, ultimately ended the relationship between the two.
Now, working with a studio that is set to meet his demands, Nolan is ready to return to the big screen to deliver something truly spectacular. Oppenheimer, according to Universal, is being described as an "epic thriller that thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it.” Nolan is also set to write the film, while Emma Thomas, Nolan's creative partner and wife, will produce with Charles Roven. Oppenheimer is based on the 2005 Pulitzer Prize winner American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer has been set for a July 21st, 2023, release date.
Source: Deadline