Perhaps the most highly anticipated movie of all time for serious film-heads and camera nerds, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey promises to be as entertaining as it will be technically marvelous. And while we’re excited about the film for many reasons, the fact that it is set to be the first feature film shot entirely in the large-scale IMAX format is truly mind-blowing.

IMAX cameras have been used by many directors in the past, with Nolan notably using IMAX for a large portion of the action sequences in his previous big-budget blockbusters. However, no film has attempted to shoot the entirety of its sequences in the IMAX format until Nolan's The Odyssey.

To pull this off, let’s preview some behind-the-scenes tidbits that are set to drop here soon in an upcoming edition of Empire Magazine, which shares insights from Nolan and Hoytema.


The Odyssey’s IMAX Journey

In the upcoming Empire Magazine feature, which you can read more about here, it sounds like Nolan and Hoytema were able to take on this huge challenge of full IMAX coverage by inventing a new casting which they call the “blimp” to both protect the IMAX camera as well as dampen the noise that is usually problematically synonymous with the IMAX recording format.

“The blimp system is a game-changer. You can be shooting a foot from [an actor’s] face while they’re whispering and get usable sound. What that opens up are intimate moments of performance on the world’s most beautiful format.” — Christopher Nolan, Empire Magazine.

The Empire Magazine feature, which is set to publish in the January 2026 issue of Empire, will go more in-depth into the duo’s filmmaking process and likely give plenty more insights and behind-the-scenes images for camera nerds to geek out over.

We’re excited to check it out both behind the scenes and on the big screen here soon.

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