Oppenheimer has a massive runtime according to Matt Damon’s most recent interview. Variety spoke to the star as the world prepares for the latest Christopher Nolan epic. Marc Malkin spoke with Damon about Oppenheimer‘s overwhelming 3 hour length. “It’s three hours. It’s fantastic,” the star began. “Cillian is phenomenal. He’s everything you would want him to be. I think it’s almost three hours. It goes so fast, it’s great.” While that will probably work for movie-goers, it’s still a lofty chunk of time for most viewers. The average blockbuster has been creeping down in runtime for a while now. (There are, of course, some high-profile exceptions like Avatar: The Way of Water.) But, the excitement builds for whatever Nolan’s got up his sleeve this time.
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“It’s a story of immense scope and scale,” Nolan described the film in a previous interview with Total Film in 2022. “And one of the most challenging projects I’ve ever taken on in terms of the scale of it, and in terms of encountering the breadth of Oppenheimer’s story. There were big, logistical challenges, big practical challenges. But I had an extraordinary crew, and they really stepped up. It will be a while before we’re finished. But certainly as I watch the results come in, and as I’m putting the film together, I’m thrilled with what my team has been able to achieve.”
How Big Is Nolan Going With Oppenheimer?
“I think recreating the Trinity test [the first nuclear weapon detonation, in New Mexico] without the use of computer graphics, was a huge challenge to take on,” Nolan also mentioned in the same interview with Total Film. “Andrew Jackson – my visual effects supervisor, I got him on board early on – was looking at how we could do a lot of the visual elements of the film practically, from representing quantum dynamics and quantum physics to the Trinity test itself, to recreating, with my team, Los Alamos up on a mesa in New Mexico in extraordinary weather, a lot of which was needed for the film, in terms of the very harsh conditions out there – there were huge practical challenges.”
Oppenheimer features the talents of Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, Emily Blunt as Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer, Leslie Groves played by Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr. along 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.
Do you find the prospect of a 3-hour movie exciting? Let us know down in the comments!
