Oppenheimer: Cast, Trailer & Everything We Know

There are plenty of exciting Oppenheimer movie updates to share as Christopher Nolan’s latest ambitious project draws closer to release. Christopher Nolan has earned praise from critics and a devoted following among fans with his epic movies like Inception, Interstellar, and of course, the Dark Knight trilogy. Now Nolan is returning for his first project with Universal Pictures in a biographical look at one of the most controversial and interesting characters in American history. With an intriguing subject in Robert Oppenheimer, an A-list cast, and an auteur like Nolan at the helm, new Oppenheimer movie updates have been highly sought after since it was announced.

Nolan’s career began in 2000 with Memento (after directing various short films), which established him as a filmmaker to watch. While his Dark Knight trilogy helped to push him to the mainstream, Nolan has continued to make bold movies on a big scale which is a trend he looks to be continuing with Oppenheimer. After dealing with historical events in his war movie Dunkirk, Oppenheimer is Nolan’s first straight biographical movie, focusing on J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), often referred to as the “father of the atomic bomb.” Since its announcement, there have been countless exciting developments with Oppenheimer, making it one of the most anticipated movies of 2023.

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Oppenheimer: Latest News

Oppenheimer is releasing in 2023, and so is in its final production and promotion phases — meaning behind-the-scenes updates on its production journey will start becoming pre-screen reviews before long. The latest Oppenheimer movie update is that Nolan’s latest will reportedly have its world premiere at the 76th Cannes Film Festival (via WorldOfReel).

Actor Matthew Modine, who worked with Nolan on The Dark Knight Rises and stars in Oppenheimer as Vannevar Bush, tweeted a new poster for the movie with the suggestion of the movie heading to Cannes. Although the tweet was later deleted, the Cannes premiere for Oppenheimer has been heavily reported from several credible sources, so the wait for early reviews shouldn’t be much longer.

Oppenheimer Release Date

Oppenheimer will be released on July 21 2023 following its reported premiere at the 76th Cannes Film Festival. It was revealed that Oppenheimer will be shot in IMAX and 65mm film and will be released in IMAX. Oppenheimer was confirmed to be the latest Christopher Nolan movie when it was first reported in January 2021. However, the new project also came with a good deal of drama as Nolan was reportedly upset with Warner Bros for their decision to release all their 2021 titles on HBO Max alongside the theatrical releases (via Indiewire).

Sure enough, after a bidding war for the new project, Nolan decided to take his movie to Universal Studios. It was also reported that Nolan had some big demands for signing on with the new studio, including a 100-day theatrical window for the release, no Universal releases within three weeks before and after the release, and a $100 million dollar budget. Nolan was also reported to have created the explosions in Oppenheimer without CGI.

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Oppenheimer: Cast

Among the most exciting Oppenheimer movie updates are the casting reveals with Nolan bringing together a massive star-studded ensemble. The movie is led by Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, marking the actor’s sixth movie with Nolan. Emily Blunt will also star as his wife, Katherine Oppenheimer. Other big names in the cast include Matt Damon as Leslie Groves and Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, his first movie role since ending his time as Iron Man in the MCU.

Other vase members in Oppenheimer include Florence Pugh as Oppenheimer’s mistress, Jean Tatlock. Benny Safdie will play Edward Teller and Josh Hartnett Ernest Lawrence, both physicists who worked alongside Oppenheimer on the Manhattan Project. President Harry S. Truman will be played by none other than Gary Oldman. The ensemble Oppenheimer cast is truly star-studded though, and also includes Rami Malek, Casey Affleck, Dane Dehaan, Alden Ehrenreich, and Jack Quaid in various roles.

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Oppenheimer: Story Details

Nolan’s biographical drama will mainly be based on American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin — widely considered to be one of the definitive biographies detailing the triumph and tragedy of Oppenheimer’s life. For those unaware, J. Robert Oppenheimer was a theoretical physicist and the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory. Due to his role in the Manhattan Project, the World War II undertaking that developed the first nuclear weapons, he’s credited as one of the “fathers of the atomic bomb”.

While not solely responsible, history has largely painted Oppenheimer as the man who invented nuclear weapons. Seen as a tragic figure in history, it was rumored that Oppenheimer was haunted until his death by the destruction his work had caused. Once the war was over, Oppenheimer became chairman of the General Advisory Committee of the United States Atomic Energy Commission and lobbied for international control of nuclear power to avoid nuclear proliferation and a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union, and he later opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb.

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Oppenheimer: Trailer

The first trailer for Oppenheimer was released exclusively in theaters on July 16, 2023, coinciding with the 78th anniversary of the first detonation of the atomic weapon. It was featured with screenings of Jordan Peele’s Nope before being made available online. The first footage avoided getting into the story, instead focusing on the imagery of the explosion and quick glimpses at the movie. The footage also proved that, despite the all-star cast, Peaky Blinders‘ Cillian Murphy would be front and center in Oppenheimer.

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