‘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.
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“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
Snoop Dogg becomes co-owner and investor of Swansea football club saying it’s ‘an underdog just like me’
Police are taking no further action over Kneecap’s performance at Glastonbury.
Officers said they had investigated “comments about a forthcoming court case made during Kneecap’s performance” at the festival on 28 June.
However, after Crown Prosecution Service advice, they decided there is not enough evidence “to provide a realistic prospect of conviction for any offence”.
The Avon & Somerset force started investigating the Irish group’s show last month, as well as comments by punk-rap duo Bob Vylan.
It said they were looking at a possible public order incident.
Police said on Friday that the investigation into Bob Vylan’s performance was ongoing.
The London duo were widely criticised – and caused a BBC crisis – after leading on-stage chants of “death to the IDF” (Israel Defence Forces).
Kneecap’s Liam Og O Hannaidh appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in June. Pic: PA
Kneecap posted a photograph on Instagram, which the group said was an email from police announcing the case was being dropped.
They said their packed Glastonbury gig was a “celebration of love and solidarity” and reporting used “wildly misleading headlines”.
Fears over what Kneecap might do or say during the performance had prompted the BBC not to show it live.
The group said: “Every single person who saw our set knew no law was broken, not even close… yet the police saw fit to publicly announce they were opening an investigation.”
“There is no public apology, they don’t send this to media or post it on police accounts,” they added.
The police statement on Friday said they had informed Kneecap of their decision to drop the case.
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One of the group’s members appeared in court in June charged with a terror offence.
Liam Og O hAnnaidh is accused of displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah, a proscribed organisation in the UK, at a gig last year.
He was released on unconditional bail ahead of a second court appearance in August.
Entertainment
Tomorrowland: ‘Devastating’ blaze destroys main stage at major festival – two days before it was due to begin
A huge fire has destroyed the main stage of a major festival in Belgium – two days before it was due to begin.
Tomorrowland is a dance music event as big as Glastonbury – and David Guetta was due to perform.
Footage showed flames and thick plumes of black smoke engulfing the stage and spreading to nearby woodland on Wednesday.
The fire gutted the main stage
Fire crews attempt to bring the blaze under control
The annual festival in the town of Boom, north of Brussels, is one of the biggest in Europe and attracts about 400,000 people over two consecutive weekends.
It is famous for its immersive and elaborate designs and attracts big names within dance music – including Guetta, best known for tracks When Love Takes Over and Titanium.
Dutch DJs Martin Garrix and Charlotte de Witte were also due to perform, along with the likes of Swedish House Mafia, Eric Prydz and Alok.
Black smoke could be seen rising into the sky
The festival’s website described the creative elements which went into the elaborate main stage.
The theme, described as Orbyz, was “set in a magical universe made entirely out of ice” and “full of mythical creatures”.
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Organisers said no one was injured in the blaze but confirmed “our beloved main stage has been severely damaged”, adding they were “devastated”.
Spokesperson Debby Wilmsen added: “We received some truly terrible news today. A fire broke out on the Tomorrowland site … and our main stage was essentially destroyed there, which is truly awful.
“That’s a stage that took years to build, with so much love and passion. So I think a lot of people are devastated.”
Spokesperson Debby Wilmsen told reporters ‘a lot of people are devastated’
Despite the fire, Tomorrowland organisers said they were still expecting 38,000 festivalgoers at DreamVille, the event’s campsite.
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