John Leguizamo lauds Christopher Nolan’s bold direction for ‘The Odyssey’

Leguizamo gushed about the Oscar winning director in an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, dubbing him as an “indie filmmaker but with crazy money”.

“Dude, you know the thing is, okay he’s got a crazy budget, it’s not small, but he runs [it] like an indie film because he’s not doing it by committee, he’s not doing it by what the studio says,” he said.

Nolan is known for his hit films like Oscar-winning Oppenheimer, Interstellar and Inception. Previously, in an interview with the Time, he shared why he valued large-scale filmmaking.

“I’m drawn to working at a large scale because I know how fragile the opportunity to marshal those resources is.”

He continued, “I know that there are so many filmmakers out there in the world who would give their eye teeth to have the resources I put together, and I feel I have the responsibility to use them in the most productive and interesting way.”

In addition to Leguizamo, the film stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong’o, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdie and Jon Bernthal.

According to Universal, the film is “a mythic action epic shot across the world using brand new Imax film technology. The film brings Homer’s foundational saga to Imax film screens for the first time.”

The Odyssey is slated for release on July 17, 2026.