How do you get asses in seats for a major event movie that’s not really a blockbuster because it’s a thriller of another kind? If you’re filmmaker Christopher Nolan and you’re making what is essentially a drama that’s being sold as a summer event blockbuster that means casting the shit out of your film. So, a massive cast is amassing around Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” film, about the making of the Atom Bomb the devastated Hiroshima, Nagasaki and ended WWII. Florence Pugh, Rami Malek, and actor/director Benny Safdie have joined the cast according to THR
“Oppenheimer” already stars Cillian Murphy as theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the creator of the bomb. Surrounding him is a huge heavyweight cast that already stars Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, and Emily Blunt. Universal won the bidding war for the much-sought-after “Oppenheimer” after Nolan parted ways with Warner Bros. after the difficult pandemic-based release of “Tenent.” The studio describes the film as an “epic thriller that thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it.” Universal has set the film for a July 21, 2023 release date, which is bold considering, thriller or not, it’s likely about a lot of tense people in rooms trying to decide what will happen if they unleash the atom bomb on the world and change it forever.
According to THR, “Pugh will play Jean Tatlock, a member of the Communist Party of the United States who has an off-and-on affair with Oppenheimer and was the cause of major security concerns for government officials. Safdie will play Edward Teller, the Hungarian physicist who is known as the father of the hydrogen bomb and a member of the Manhattan Project, the U.S. research initiative that developed the first atomic bomb. Malek is playing a scientist.”
Damon is playing Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves, the director of the Manhattan Project and Downey is playing Lewis Strauss. Strauss was the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission who initiated hearings that questioned Oppenheimer’s loyalty to the United States and famously had the scientist’s security clearance revoked. Again, this sounds like a lot of tense drama between men, but not the kind of action that usually floats blockbuster box office dollars.
But if anyone can still turn this story and situation into a pulse-pounding thriller, it’s very likely Christopher Nolan can.
Pugh is currently appearing in “Hawkeye” on Disney+ and appeared as the same Yelena/Black Widow character in this summer’s “Black Widow” Marvel movie. Benny Safdie alternates between directing his own films with his brother and acting. He just most recently turned up in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza” as a local politician. Malek recently turned up as the villain in “No Time To Die,” currently the highest-grossing English language film in the world with a total that’s inching closer and closer to $800 million globally.