Oppenheimer: Christopher Nolan Reveals He Wrote Film’s Script Entirely in First Person

Christopher Nolan’s next film, the upcoming Oppenheimer, will see the filmmaker relying on some of his tried-and-true cinematic techniques as he pushes the boundaries of the format for his most ambitious film to date, but the film is also seeing Nolan do some things he’s never done before. Speaking with Empire magazine (via Variety), Nolan revealed that when developing Oppenheimer, he wrote the script in first person — down to the stage directions. For the filmmaker, it served as a reminder of how to shoot the film, which is largely told through the eyes of Oppenheimer.

“I actually wrote in the first person, which I’ve never done before,” Nolan said. “I don’t know if anyone’s ever done it before. But the point of it is, with the color sequences, which is the bulk of the film, everything is told from Oppenheimer’s point of view — you’re literally kind of looking through his eyes.”

He continued, “Odd thing to do. But it was a reminder to me of how to shoot the film. It was a reminder to everybody involved in the project, ‘Okay, this is the point of view of every scene.’ I wanted to really go through this story with Oppenheimer; I didn’t want to sit by him and judge him. That seemed a pointless exercise. That’s more the stuff of documentary, or political theory, or history of science. This is a story that you experience with him — you don’t judge him. You are faced with these irreconcilable ethical dilemmas with him.”

What is Oppenheimer about? 

The film follows the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory during the time of the Manhattan. Project, the government directive that built the United States its first nuclear weapon. Cillian Murphy steps into the role of Oppenheimer, something the actor’s been after since he and Nolan first worked together on Batman Begins.

“He’s so understated and self-deprecating and, in his very English manner, just said, ‘Listen, I’ve written this script, it’s about Oppenheimer. I’d like you to be my Oppenheimer.’ It was a great day,” Murphy told The Associated Press. “I have always said publicly and privately, to Chris, that if I’m available and you want me to be in a movie, I’m there. I don’t really care about the size of the part. But deep down, secretly, I was desperate to play a lead for him.”

Joining Murphy are Emily Blunt as Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer, Matt Damon as Leslie Groves, Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock, Benny Safdie as Edward Teller, Michael Angarano as Robert Serber, Josh Hartnett as Ernest Lawrence, Dylan Arnold as Frank Oppenheimer, David Krumholtz as Isidor Isaac Rabi, Matthew Modine as Vannevar Bush, Josh Peck as Kenneth Bainbridge, Devon Bostick as Seth Neddermeyer, Matthias Schweighöfer as Werner Heisenberg, Christopher Denham as Klaus Fuchs, Guy Burnet as George Eltenton, Danny Deferrari as Enrico Fermi, Emma Dumont as Jackie Oppenheimer, Gustaf Skarsgård as Hans Bethe, Trond Fausa Aurvåg as George Kistiakowsky, and Gary Oldman as Harry S. Truman.

Opening on July 21st, Oppenheimer is based on Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.