Cool Stuff: Unleashing Oppenheimer Book Digs Into The Making Of Christopher Nolan's Film
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This year, "Oppenheimer" became an unstoppable hit for Universal Pictures. Of course, a new movie from "The Dark Knight" and "Inception" director Christopher Nolan is always going to pique the curiosity of even the most general audiences. But the fact that a three-hour historical biopic starring Cillian Murphy in his first leading role as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man responsible for creating the atomic bomb, made over $939 million at the worldwide box office is quite shocking. Bolstered by the natural hype phenomenon known as Barbenheimer, which paired this year's hit "Barbie" with an unlikely double-feature partner, "Oppenheimer" is one of the biggest cinematic successes of 2023. And soon, you can find out how it all came together.
Insight Editions
This month, Insight Editions is releasing "Unleashing Oppenheimer: Inside Christopher Nolan's Explosive Atomic-Age Thriller," a 272-page book that chronicles the making of the film, from its development spark to post-production and its big theatrical release. Within the book, The Washington Post reporter Jada Yuan provides new interviews with Christopher Nolan himself, his producing partner and wife Emma Thomas, leading man Cillian Murphy, fellow stars Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, and pretty much everyone from the huge ensemble cast who brought the movie to life.
Along with the interviews, you'll find an extensive recounting of the challenges that Nolan and the "Oppenheimer" crew faced in creating the historically accurate and compelling story of how the man affectionately known as Oppie created a true weapon of mass destruction and became haunted by it for the rest of his life. From finding a location that could sustain a recreation of the manufactured town of Los Alamos to actually shooting in the real-life New Mexico location and everything in between, this book digs into all the nooks and crannies with fascinating insights and details.
'They won't fear it until they understand it, and they won't understand it until they've used it'
Enhancing the story of how "Oppenheimer" was made is an incredible collection of visuals from the film, including on-set photos, concept art, research materials, and storyboards. For example, you'll see the scaled foamcore model of Los Alamos as Nolan and production designer Ruth De Jong attempted to figure out how much of the historical location they could build for the film's set. You'll also see diagrams used to create the cyclotron that made the bomb's creation possible, as well as a plethora of behind-the-scenes photos featuring Nolan and his cast working in the moment.
Insight Editions
Having dug into this book myself, it's one of the most enlightening and meticulously pieced together chronicles of filmmaking I've seen in awhile. With so many characters and locations featured in the film, the book does an impressive job of digging into nearly every single aspect of the film's production, from Cillian Murphy's carefully crafted haircut to the practical visuals created to represent quantum physics and atomic science. It's a staggering glimpse at just how specific and careful Nolan is with every single facet of production.
"Unleashing Oppenheimer" is available for pre-order right now, and it will be released on October 24, 2023.