Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey: Which God are you serving? Pt 1

Christopher Nolan had an interesting approach to adapting.

He didn't begin by rereading the Odyssey.

He began by identifying what he saw as the cultural images and incidents that were in the zeitgeist, in the collective unconscious of the audience.

Elements like the Trojan horse, the cyclops, the sirens, the lotus eaters.

He then did his early drafts from his memory of the poem.

before getting into deeper translations of the poem.

And once he had read multiple translations of the poem, he actually took that source material and he set it aside and continued to write from that original draft and from the impressions that had been left upon him.

I'm certainly not a scholar of Greek poetry, but if you've seen the Odyssey and you know Homer's The Odyssey, you'll notice that it's not just The Odyssey that Christopher Nolan is adapting.

He's also adapting elements of Virgil's Aeneid.

He's also integrating elements of other Greek dramas and Greek tragedies, right? He's not doing the book.

He's doing the world of the book.

And he's doing this for a reason, right? And part of that's a commercial reason is that his audience has a view of what they think the Odyssey is that may or may not be what the actual Odyssey is.

And part of his job in making a hugely, hugely expensive film is making sure that the audience leaves going, yes, I got what I expected.

So there are certain elements of the Odyssey that need to be a part of it because they are part of the cultural memory of this piece, even if they're not in the book.

And this is a normal thing, especially if you are a commercial screenwriter, right? If you're writing big Hollywood epic blockbusters, thinking about the needs of the audience is important.

You're often thinking about the needs if you're developing IP, if you're making the Lego movie or the Barbie movie.

You're also serving the needs of the IP owners, right? What does Lego want to say about Lego? What does Barbie want to say about Barbie? This is not the case if you're writing a character-driven drama for Sundance.

This is not the case if you're building stuff out of your own imagination rather than based on existing IP.

And this is not the case when you are working at a smaller budget and don't need everybody in the world to love your movie.

When you're working smaller, you get different kinds of options.

You can surprise the expectations of your audience.

Because you don't need everyone in the world to see it.

You need a subset of the world to see it.

But when you're working at Christopher Nolan's budget, everyone in the world has got to be able to see it.

Everyone in the world has got to be able to see themselves in it.

Christopher Nolan had an interesting approach to adapting.

He didn't begin by rereading the Odyssey.

He began by identifying what he saw as the cultural images and incidents that were in the zeitgeist, in the collective unconscious of the audience.

Elements like the Trojan horse, the cyclops, the sirens, the lotus eaters.

He then did his early drafts from his memory of the poem.

before getting into deeper translations of the poem.

And once he had read multiple translations of the poem, he actually took that source material and he set it aside and continued to write from that original draft and from the impressions that had been left upon him.

I'm certainly not a scholar of Greek poetry, but if you've seen the Odyssey and you know Homer's The Odyssey, you'll notice that it's not just The Odyssey that Christopher Nolan is adapting.

He's also adapting elements of Virgil's Aeneid.

He's also integrating elements of other Greek dramas and Greek tragedies, right? He's not doing the book.

He's doing the world of the book.

And he's doing this for a reason, right? And part of that's a commercial reason is that his audience has a view of what they think the Odyssey is that may or may not be what the actual Odyssey is.

And part of his job in making a hugely, hugely expensive film is making sure that the audience leaves going, yes, I got what I expected.

So there are certain elements of the Odyssey that need to be a part of it because they are part of the cultural memory of this piece, even if they're not in the book.

And this is a normal thing, especially if you are a commercial screenwriter, right? If you're writing big Hollywood epic blockbusters, thinking about the needs of the audience is important.

You're often thinking about the needs if you're developing IP, if you're making the Lego movie or the Barbie movie.

You're also serving the needs of the IP owners, right? What does Lego want to say about Lego? What does Barbie want to say about Barbie? This is not the case if you're writing a character-driven drama for Sundance.

This is not the case if you're building stuff out of your own imagination rather than based on existing IP.

And this is not the case when you are working at a smaller budget and don't need everybody in the world to love your movie.

When you're working smaller, you get different kinds of options.

You can surprise the expectations of your audience.

Because you don't need everyone in the world to see it.

You need a subset of the world to see it.

But when you're working at Christopher Nolan's budget, everyone in the world has got to be able to see it.

Everyone in the world has got to be able to see themselves in it.