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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Entertainment
Beth Ure

Oppenheimer 2023: UK release date, trailer, cast list and what its about

From an incredible star-studded cast to its release date, here's everything you need to know about Christopher Nolan's new film, Oppenheimer.

The film is Nolan's first since 'Tenet', the time-bending 2020 hit, and his first biopic, looking at the life of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer is one of the men credited as the 'father of the atomic bomb'.

The film is based on the book American Prometheus, a biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. Here's everything we know so far.

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What is Oppenheimer about?

Nolan’s film charts the theoretical physicist’s role in the Manhattan Project, a US research project during World War II into nuclear weapons. The project was formed under President Franklin D. Roosevelt due to fears that German scientists under Hitler were working on creating a nuclear bomb.

In 1943, Oppenheimer was appointed as director of the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico where the actual bombs were designed. This complex – also known as Project Y during its creation – was where the first Manhattan Project bombs were built and tested.

Oppenheimer believed that atomic materials needed control and regulation. He was also against the building of the hydrogen bomb.

Who is in Oppenheimer?

The film's stacked cast has made it one of the most hotly anticipated films of 2023. The cast is led by Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, with Emily Blunt playing his wife, biologist and botanist Katherine 'Kitty' Oppenheimer.

The cast also includes Matt Damon as Army Corps of Engineers overseer Leslie Groves, Robert Downey Jr. as Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Lewis Strauss, and Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock, a member of the Communist Party in the US who had a romantic relationship with Oppenheimer.

Rami Malek, Jack Quaid, Josh Hartnett, Josh Peck, Devon Bostick, Dane DeHaan, Kenneth Branagh, Gary Oldman, Alex Wolff, and Matthew Modine will also appear.

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When is Oppenheimer being released?

The official trailer for the film was released this month, confirming that the film will be in cinemas on July 21, 2023.

The film, like all of Nolan's recent works, was shot with IMAX cameras, and uses practical effects, rather than CGI. Nolan told Total Film: "I think recreating the Trinity test [the first nuclear weapon detonation, in New Mexico] without the use of computer graphics, was a huge challenge to take on."

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