‘The danger never goes away’: Christopher Nolan didn’t intend for Oppenheimer movie to be so timely
The world’s first nuclear explosion happened on 16 July 1945, when a plutonium implosion device was tested in New Mexico.
Now a new film about the so-called father of the atomic bomb, J Robert Oppenheimer, looks at how he came to create a weapon that would change the world and how it changed him.
J Robert Oppenheimer on the test ground for the atomic bomb in September 1945
Decades since its invention, as Russia’s war rages in Ukraine, the weapon’s threat to the world is back in people’s minds.
Director Christopher Nolan, who also wrote the movie, basing it on the Pulitzer Prize winning book American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin, told Sky News he never meant for his film to be so timely.
“I had a conversation with one of my teenage sons about what I was working on and he literally said to me – ‘Does anybody really worry about nuclear weapons anymore? Is that really a thing in the world?’
“To which I said, ‘Well, maybe that’s a reason for making the film but beyond that, it’s just a very, very dramatic story about how our world changed forever’.
“Two years later, he’s not asking that question anymore and neither is anybody else for all the worst possible reasons, and that’s symptomatic of our relationship with the threat of nuclear weapons and nuclear holocaust – it ebbs and flows with geopolitical shifts in a way that it shouldn’t – I mean, the danger never goes away.”
To inhabit the role of Oppenheimer, Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy lost weight and perfected a new accent and also had to learn about quantum physics and grapple with Oppenheimer’s morality.
“Actors love getting jobs and then they’re dying to finish them, that seems to be the way,” Murphy told Sky News.
Tom Conti as Albert Einstein with Murphy. Pic: Universal Pictures
“So, yeah, it was time for a holiday after that for sure, if you do anything for like 17, 18 hours a day and you’re in that and you’re on set all the time, naturally there will be a cost and then you feel at the end there’s all this displaced energy and you’re not quite sure what to do with it, and you start moving furniture around.”
Nolan interjects: “And have a sandwich”.
For the director, known for movies including Intersteller, Inception and Dunkirk – and who has a reputation for shunning digital effects and greenscreen – it wasn’t recreating a nuclear explosion that posed a challenge.
Instead, he says he found the casting process daunting.
Click to subscribe to Backstage wherever you get your podcasts
“The ensemble – with Cillian at the heart of it as Oppenheimer – but then his interactions with this entire team of people coming together to pull off this, you know, impossible feat, that was a challenge for me.
“Doing these group discussions, these arguments, these interpersonal relationships and all of that, all of which came into such a kind of hothouse atmosphere with the Manhattan Project and everything they had to do in the years that they were there.
“That was something I’d never really taken on before.”
Emily Blunt and Cillian Murphy. Pic: Universal Pictures
The extremely positive early reviews for Oppenheimer suggest Nolan rose to that challenge.
But now, with promotion for the film interrupted by the US actor’s strike, it remains to be seen whether audiences will have the appetite for a three-hour epic about the creation of the atomic bomb – the end of the world perhaps too close for comfort to be considered entertainment.
Oppenheimer, which also stars Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh and Robert Downey Jr, is released worldwide on Friday 21 July.
Entertainment
Scarlett Johansson responds after her likeness is used in AI video of celebrities condemning Kanye West’s antisemitism
Scarlett Johansson has condemned the use of AI after her likeness was used in a viral video of celebrities condemning Kanye West’s antisemitism.
The AI-generated clip shows celebrities such as Johansson, Ben Stiller, Mila Kunis and Steven Spielberg wearing white T-shirts featuring the Star of David inside a hand sticking up its middle finger above Kanye’s name.
It finishes with an AI version of Adam Sandler sticking his middle finger up at the camera and the words: “Enough is enough. Join the fight to end antisemitism.”
An AI David Schwimmer also appears in the video. Pic: Ori Bejerano
But Johansson released a statement about “the misuse of AI”, writing: “I am a Jewish woman who has no tolerance for antisemitism or hate speech of any kind.
“But I also firmly believe that the potential for hate speech multiplied by AI is a far greater threat than any one person who takes accountability for it.
“We must call out the misuse of AI, no matter its messaging, or we risk losing a hold on reality.”
She added: “I have unfortunately been a very public victim of AI, but the truth is that the threat of AI affects each and every one of us.”
She called on the US government to do more to limit AI, adding: “There is a 1,000ft wave coming regarding AI that several progressive countries, not including the United States, have responded to in a responsible manner. It is terrifying that the US government is paralysed when it comes to passing legislation that protects all of its citizens against the imminent dangers of AI.
“I urge the US government to make the passing of legislation limiting AI use a top priority; it is a bipartisan issue that enormously affects the immediate future of humanity at large.”
Read more from Sky News:
US defence secretary signals dramatic shift in military policy
Killer of MP was ‘exited’ from Prevent ‘too quickly’, review finds
NHS trust fined over ‘catalogue of failures’
Kanye West. Pic: AP
Controversy surrounding swastika T-shirts
It comes amid a backlash after West, also known as Ye, sold T-shirts featuring a swastika and wrote a series of antisemitic messages on X.
On Sunday the US rapper bought a Super Bowl advert which directed people to his website, which featured nothing but a single white T-shirt with a swastika on the front alongside the code “HH-01” – which the Anti-Defamation League (ADF) said was code for “Heil Hitler”.
The ADF described the shirt, which was on sale for $20 (£16) as “further proof” of West’s antisemitism.
The e-commerce platform Spotify, which hosts many online shops and businesses, later deactivated his site.
In an emailed statement to Sky News’ partner network NBC News, Shopify said: “All merchants are responsible for following the rules of our platform. This merchant did not engage in authentic commerce practices and violated our terms so we removed them from Shopify.”
yeez.com was taken offline by Shopify, the e-commerce platform hosting his shop
Antisemitic online posts
In recent days West posted antisemitic messages on X, as well as “I love Hitler” and “I’m a Nazi”.
His account then had a “sensitive content warning” added before he deactivated it on Monday.
His spokesperson Milo Yiannopoulos said: “Ye is an intergenerational artist and icon who continues to redefine the limits of creativity and free expression. He has deactivated his X account for the time being.”
The Campaign Against Antisemitism was joined by Friends star David Schwimmer, who features in the AI video, in calling for Elon Musk to remove West from X over a string of offensive posts.
A$AP Rocky will not give evidence at his trial over allegations he fired a gun at a former friend and collaborator.
In court in Los Angeles on Tuesday, the 36-year-old rapper was asked by Superior Court Judge Mark Arnold if he had discussed the issue with his lawyers.
“Absolutely, your honour,” Rocky replied, saying he would invoke America’s Fifth Amendment right to silence. “I want my right not to testify.”
The rapper faces up to 24 years in prison if convicted. Pic: Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via AP
The star’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, previously said he was “eager to tell his story” and would “love the opportunity to do so”, but putting a defendant through a potentially long cross-examination can often be risky in criminal cases.
Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, is accused of firing a gun at Terell Ephron, also known as A$AP Relli, a former friend and member of the A$AP crew of collaborators they were part of at school in New York.
Ephron gave evidence earlier in the trial, saying their friendship had broken down and a feud allegedly came to a head on an evening in November 2021.
At the start of the trial, jurors were shown surveillance videos that prosecutors argue make it clear Rocky fired a gun at Ephron outside a parking garage in Hollywood.
However, Mr Tacopina said in his defence opening statement that the gun was not real, but rather a starter pistol carried as a prop. Ephron has been driven by “jealousy, lies and greed”, he told the court.
Terell Ephron, aka A$AP Relli, says Rocky fired a gun at him. Pic: Frazer Harrison/Pool via AP
‘Non-lethal form of self-defence’
On Monday, Rocky’s tour manager Lou Levin became the second witness from his inner circle to testify that he carried a fake gun for security.
The star’s house had previously been broken into by a stalker and others, he said, so he told him it made sense to carry it.
“Security and I thought it would be a good idea, because of the prior violence,” Mr Levin told the court. “It’s just a non-lethal form of self-defence.”
Rocky’s partner Rihanna has attended court to show support on several days during the trial. Pic: AP/Liam McEwan
The gun had come from a video shoot in the summer of 2021, he said, about three months before the night in question.
The defence has said it does not have the starter pistol now. The authorities also did not recover the pistol they allege was used.
Rocky is charged with two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm.
Ahead of the trial, he turned down a plea deal that could have led to a 180-day jail sentence, in exchange for a guilty plea on one count.
He faces up to 24 years in prison if convicted.
The defence has now rested its case, with closing arguments from both sides expected later this week.
A Grammy-nominated music star, actor and fashion mogul, Rocky is the partner of pop superstar Rihanna, and the couple have two young sons.
Rihanna has attended court on several days to show support.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports10 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway