Christopher Nolan says Oppenheimer is his longest film to date: ‘It’s kissing three hours’

Oppenheimer, which is an IMAX-shot epic thriller, will be released on July 21.

May 22, 2023 - 1:10 PM IST

Hollywood filmmaker Christopher Nolan is gearing up for the release of Oppenheimer starring Cillian Murphy in the lead role. While the movie is set to clash with Barbie on the big screen, the film is a lengthy one for Nolan after Interstellar. He recently revealed that the runtime of the movie is longer than 2 hours and 49 minutes.

Christopher Nolan says Oppenheimer is his longest film to date: ‘It’s kissing three hours’

“It’s slightly longer than the longest we’ve done,” Nolan told Total Magazine. “It’s kissing three hours.”

The film stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer and Emily Blunt as his wife, biologist and botanist Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer. “I think of any character I’ve dealt with, Oppenheimer is by far the most ambiguous and paradoxical,” Nolan said. “Which, given that I’ve made three Batman films, is saying a lot.”

“The script was so emotional, and it reads like a thriller,” said Emily Blunt. “It’s almost like he’s Trojan-Horsed a biopic into a thriller. It’s really pulse-racing the whole thing. I was just completely arrested by the story, the portrait of this man, and, I guess, the trauma of a brain like that.”

Oscar-winner Matt Damon portrays General Leslie Groves Jr., director of the Manhattan Project, and Robert Downey, Jr. plays Lewis Strauss, a founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Academy Award nominee Florence Pugh plays psychiatrist Jean Tatlock, Benny Safdie plays theoretical physicist Edward Teller, Michael Angarano plays Robert Serber and Josh Hartnett plays pioneering American nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence.

In Nolan’s upcoming biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Murphy portrays Oppenheimer, one of the fathers of the A-bomb during the Second World War, who later found his loyalty to the United States questioned by hawkish government officials.

Robert Downey Jr. plays Lewis Strauss, a founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission; Matt Damon portrays General Leslie Groves Jr., director of the Manhattan Project; Florence Pugh plays psychiatrist Jean Tatlock; Benny Safdie is theoretical physicist Edward Teller; Michael Angarano takes on Robert Serber and Josh Hartnett plays pioneering American nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence.

Oppenheimer, which is an IMAX-shot epic thriller, will be released on July 21.