By 
Christopher Nolan’s next film after the time-twister Tenet will be something altogether more straightforward: a Second World War period biopic called Oppenheimer.
Some of Nolan’s usual favourites are involved, plus a load of extremely huge names new to the Nolan-verse.
Here’s everything we know about it so far.
Who was Robert J Oppenheimer?
A lot of other people were involved in the theory and realisation of the atomic bomb – most notably Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard, who had conceived of the idea of a nuclear chain reaction while crossing Southampton Row in Bloomsbury in September 1933 – but it was American theoretical physicist Oppenheimer who became the face of the bomb.
Oppenheimer was the surprise choice as head of the special weapons laboratory on the Manhattan Project, given his lack of big project experience and general left-leaning politics. Brigadier General Leslie Groves, who picked Oppenheimer, said he saw an “overweening ambition” in him that he thought would work.
The physicist Victor Weisskopf worked under Oppenheimer, and felt his influence at the Los Alamos labs where the Manhattan Project came together: “It was his continuous and intense presence, which produced a sense of direct participation in all of us; it created that unique atmosphere of enthusiasm and challenge that pervaded the place throughout its time.”
Having created the bomb, Oppenheimer himself felt deeply conflicted about it. Twenty years later, he reflected in a TV interview on the moment of the Trinity test, the first atomic explosion: “We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed. A few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty, and to impress him he takes on his multi-armed form and says: ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds’. I suppose we all felt that, one way or another.”
That’s a misquotation from the Bhagavad Gita, but still. Oppenheimer also told President Harry Truman that he felt he had blood on his hands over the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War; Truman snapped at him, and privately bemoaned the “cry-baby scientist”.
“Blood on his hands?” Truman is quoted as saying when Oppenheimer had left. “Damn it, he hasn’t half as much blood on his hands as I have. You just don’t go around bellyaching about it.”
What will Oppenheimer be about?
The meat of the story will draw on Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. It spans his whole life, from his beginnings as an irritatingly precocious boy in New York who studied at Harvard and then Cambridge, to his end in 1969 of throat cancer.
It’s safe to assume, though, that much will focus on the Manhattan Project and the construction of the first atomic bomb, as well as the build up to the Trinity test. While intellectually invigorating, life at Los Alamos wasn’t without extreme hazards.
On two separate occasions in 1945 and 1946, scientists were killed when the cores of plutonium they were working with went supercritical, firing out lethal doses of radiation. When you’re working with highly refined plutonium, these things can happen.
Who’s in Oppenheimer?
If there’s anyone who can make standing still and chain smoking feel intensely meaningful, it’s Cillian Murphy. He’s already worked with Nolan on his Batman trilogy, Dunkirk and Inception.
“I’m interested in the man and what [inventing the atomic bomb] does to the individual,” Murphy told the Guardian recently. “The mechanics of it, that’s not really for me – I don’t have the intellectual capability to understand them, but these contradictory characters are fascinating.”
In out recent cover story with the Peaky Blinders star, he talked about his excitement at being cast. “It’s the first time he’s cast me in a lead, which I’m still a bit in shock about, but I’m thrilled. It’s a huge part and a lot of work. But in my estimation, you’re working with one of the greatest living directors, so you’re in safe hands.”
We asked for a few more details, but came up trumps. “I’m not going to say. They’d kill me — they’re so strict!”
Other Nolan regulars involved include Sir Kenneth Branagh in an unspecified role and Matt Damon as Groves.
Elsewhere, Robert Downey Jr will play Lewis Strauss from the US Atomic Energy Commission, Emily Blunt will play biologist, botanist and wife of Oppenheimer, Kitty.
In fact, there’s so many names we’re just going to line them up here: Florence Pugh! Benny Safdie! Rami Malek! Josh Hartnett! Alden Ehrenreich! And many more besides!
When is Oppenheimer out?
Oppenheimer is currently scheduled for release on 21 July 2023.
Is there an Oppenheimer trailer?
Not yet! But we'll keep you updated here.
