Josh Hartnett Cast In Christopher Nolan’s Upcoming Film Oppenheimer

Christopher Nolan continues to stack the cast for his next film, Oppenheimer. According to Deadline, Josh Hartnett has signed on to the film, joining an impressive, A-list cast that includes Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr., Rami Malek, Benny Safdie, and Cillian Murphy. It’s not clear who Hartnett will be playing in the film, which is Nolan’s first project since leaving Warner Bros. for Universal. The film is currently slated for a July 21, 2023, release. It was previously reported that production on the film is expected to begin during the first quarter of this year.

In Oppenheimer, which Nolan reportedly also wrote the script for in addition to directing, Murphy is set to play J. Robert Oppenheimer, a theoretical physicist who was the head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and is among those credited as being “the father of the atomic bomb” for his role in the Manhattan Project, the World War II project that developed the first nuclear weapons.  The weapons created by the Manhattan Project were used in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Blunt is playing his wife Katherine Vissering Oppenheimer. Pugh is set to play Jean Tatlock, a member of the Communist Party of the United States who had an affair with Oppenheimer, while Safdie will play Edward Teller, a member of the Manhattan Project considered to be the “father of the hydrogen bomb”.  The film will be based on Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Nolan will produce alongside his wife and collaborator Emma Thomas. Oppenheimer is set to be shot in IMAX.

As was noted previously, Oppenheimer is Nolan’s first film since the end of his decades-long relationship with Warner Bros. It’s been reported that Nolan’s deal with Universal gives the filmmaker total creative control of the film, a $100 million budget with an equal amount to be spent on marketing, 20 percent of the first-dollar gross, a guaranteed theatrical window of 100 days, and reportedly a “blackout period” where the studio will not release any other movies in the three weeks preceding and following Oppenheimer‘s release.

Oppenheimer currently has a release date of July 21, 2023.

What do you think about this latest casting update for Oppenheimer Are you looking forward to Nolan’s next film? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section!