Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer Trailer Released

05/08/2023 08:35 am EDT

Universal Pictures has released the first trailer for Oppenheimer, the upcomign biopic of nuclear scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, which reunites filmmaker Christopher Nolan with Batman Begins villain Cillian Murphy, here playing the hero -- or at least the protagonist, given that it isn't clear whether Oppenheimer himself would consider his actions heroic. Oppenheimer, Nolan's first movie under a new deal he signed with Universal, is also the first film released by the auteur filmmaker since 2020's Tenet. The movie was the subject of a pretty active bidding war that included traditional studios and streamers, including Warner Bros., Netflix, and others. 

It's widely understood that Nolan, who aggressively lobbied to get audiences back in theaters in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, left his longtime home at Warner Bros. because he was unhappy with the company's decision to send movies to HBO Max on the same day as their theatrical release in 2021.

You can see the trailer below.

You can see the oficial synopsis from Universal below.

Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer is an IMAX®-shot 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.

The film stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer and Emily Blunt as his wife, biologist and botanist Katherine "Kitty" Oppenheimer. 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.

Oppenheimer also stars Oscar® winner Rami Malek and reunites Nolan with eight-time Oscar® nominated actor, writer and filmmaker Kenneth Branagh.

The cast includes Dane DeHaan (Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets), Dylan Arnold (Halloween franchise), David Krumholtz (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story) and Matthew Modine (The Dark Knight Rises).

The film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin. The film is produced by Emma Thomas, Atlas Entertainment's Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan.

Oppenheimer is filmed in a combination of IMAX® 65mm and 65mm large-format film photography including, for the first time ever, sections in IMAX® black and white analogue photography.

Oppenheimer will be in theaters on July 21.

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