For the filmmaker Christopher Nolan, the seed that became The Odyssey was planted in the early 2000s. Nolan had just made Insomnia, his psychological thriller with Al Pacino and Robin Williams, when he was given the keys to Troy, a swords-and-sandals action epic starring Brad Pitt. It wasn’t to be – director Wolfgang Petersen, who had devised the script, requested the film back when another one of his projects fell through, and Nolan was forced to step away. But the experience wasn’t a complete waste.
“When I was briefly attached to direct Troy, I did a lot of thinking about the Trojan Horse and how I would portray that and make it credible,” the smartly dressed director says while sitting opposite me in a London hotel. “I’ve had an image of that horse sinking into the sand in my head for 20 years.”
