Cillian Murphy to Play J. Robert Oppenheimer in Nolan’s Next Film

Cillian Murphy has signed on to play the lead role in Christopher Nolan’s next film, Oppenheimer, according to Deadline. Murphy will portray scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer in the biographical drama from Universal Pictures and Nolan’s Syncopy banner, with a release date set for July 21, 2023.

“The IMAX-shot epic thriller thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it,” reads the logline from the outlet.

Oppenheimer is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin. The film is written and directed by Nolan, with Universal Pictures expected to distribute the feature theatrically worldwide. Emma Thomas and Atlas Entertainment’s Charles Roven and Nolan will produce.

“Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas’ films have shattered the limits of what cinematic storytelling can achieve,” said Universal Filmed Entertainment Group Chairman, Donna Langley. “We are thrilled to be working alongside them on this exceptional and extraordinary project and are grateful for their shared passion and commitment to the theatrical experience.”

The movie will begin production in early 2022 and is reportedly being shot on a combination IMAX 65mm and 65mm large-format film.

J. Robert Oppenheimer was an American theoretical physicist and professor of physics who became the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory. He is among those credited with being “the father of atomic bomb” for their role in the Manhattan Project, which was the WWII undertaking resulting in the development of the first nuclear weapons. Oppenheimer is also infamously known as saying, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” quoting the Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita following the successful detonation of the first atomic bomb on July 16, 1945.

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