Christopher Nolan relished 'nightmare' filming process for The Odyssey

Christopher Nolan has described The Odyssey as a "nightmare to film – but in all the right ways".

The 55-year-old filmmaker's upcoming blockbuster brings Homer's epic ancient Greek story to the big screen and he explained that he had an "amazing time" shooting the movie during a hectic production process across Morocco, Greece, Italy, Iceland and Scotland.

Speaking at a presentation for The Odyssey at CinemaCon on Wednesday (15.04.26), Nolan said: "This has been a nightmare to film – but in all the right ways."

The Oppenheimer director reserved praise for The Odyssey's leading man Matt Damon, whom he referred to as his "partner on this journey".

Nolan recalled: "He was there on the boats, up the mountains, in the caves, in the beating sunshine, sideways rain, wind. You'll be pleased to know how difficult it was. It was meant to be; that's the nature of the story."

Attendees at CinemaCon in Las Vegas got an extended glimpse of The Odyssey – which will be released in July – and Nolan explained that he decided to adapt Homer's story for the cinema because it "has fascinated generation after generation".

The auteur said: "Why The Odyssey? The Odyssey is a story that has fascinated generation after generation for 3,000 years. It's not a story. It's the story."

The picture tells the story of Odysseus (Damon), the Greek king of Ithaca, and his long and perilous journey home to reunite with his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) following the Trojan War and Nolan quipped that the film's cast – which also includes Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya and Charlize Theron – is so talent-filled that he couldn't bring all of the stars to CinemaCon.

The Inception director said: "How do you go about bringing this to a modern audience? Obviously, we start with the cast.

"It'll be quicker for me to tell you who isn't in the movie. I would have brought them all here, but the massive weight of extraordinary talent would have collapsed the stage."

The Odyssey is Nolan's first movie to be shot entirely with Imax cameras, something that the director considers to be the realisation of his "longest-held ambition".

He said: "As a boy, all I wanted to do was tell large-scale (stories) using that technology, putting the audience into the world.

"And I spent many, many years trying to bring that to fruition, starting with The Dark Knight, back when I was in my 30s. We shot the action sequences (in Imax), but we were never able to shoot the entire film.

"My crew did an incredible job figuring out how to do this for the first time."

Holland plays Odysseus' son Telemachus in the flick and described Nolan's epic picture as a "masterpiece".

The 29-year-old actor told GQ magazine: "It’s unlike anything that I’ve ever seen before. I think when I saw the movie, I found myself asking a question that I haven’t asked about a movie for a long time, which is, 'How did you do that?'"