Christopher Nolan on the intimacy of 'The Odyssey': 'Ive been telling this story in all my films for years'

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Set us as preferred Best known as the dream factory, Hollywood also echoes a certain chocolate factory that offers all-access golden tickets to fortunate boys and girls.Filmmakers who’ve had unforeseen success don’t get chocolate — they get a golden ticket to direct a passion project the next time around.

Just ask Christopher Nolan.“One hundred percent,” Nolan says when asked if he’s experienced the phenomenon.“Every now and again, if you’re really lucky and something really clicks, if your work catches a wave, that happens.

After ‘The Dark Knight’ we were able to do ‘Inception’ and after ‘Oppenheimer’ was such a success, far beyond what we hoped for, we had the opportunity to do ‘The Odyssey.’ ”An epic poem thousands of years old attributed to Homer, “The Odyssey” is not just any passion project.In taking on the story of Trojan War veteran Odysseus (Matt Damon) and his fraught 20-year journey to return to his besieged wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), and his son Telamachus (Tom Holland) and rescue them from voracious suitors like Antinous (Robert Pattinson), Nolan has challenged himself with one of the oldest, most archetypal stories known to man.Yet until now there has not been a major film adaptation, which was part of the attraction.“As a filmmaker, you are looking for a gap in the culture and this felt like an important one,” he says, sipping on a mug of the excellent Earl Grey tea (“I’ve run on it for 25 years”) that is his constant companion.“That world felt like it hadn’t been addressed.

Ray Harryhausen did it working on a shoestring, but the opportunity to take this on — on a big scale — was there, and it hadn’t been there before.”When Nolan says big scale, he is not kidding.His effortlessly epic, formidably impressive “The Odyssey,” which opens Friday,...