Robert Downey Jr. and Matt Damon are in talks to the cast of Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer. Based on the book "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer" by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, the film will follow the life and career of the man who invented the atomic bomb, as played by Cillian Murphy. It was also recently reported that Emily Blunt was in talks to the cast; likely to play Oppenheimer's wife Katherine.
Christopher Nolan's last film, Tenet, was released via Warner Bros., but the filmmaker has since moved on from the studio and will be releasing Oppenheimer through Universal. Nolan was vocal about being upset with the day-and-date release model implemented by Warner Bros. during the pandemic, a model that will continue through the end of the year. Even though Tenet was released theatrically, the filmmaker decided to pull up the stakes and move to another studio for his next effort, which ends a long run with the studio that produced The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk, and his latest, Tenet.
Now, Deadline reports that two more big names are likely to be added to Oppenheimer. Robert Downey Jr. and Matt Damon are in talks to Murphy in the ambitious project. While Damon previously worked with Nolan on Interstellar, this would mark the director's first collaboration with Downey Jr. Oppenheimer is slated to begin shooting in the first quarter of 2022 and appears to be building an ensemble cast with these latest additions, with more names surely on the way to fill out the production.
Downey Jr. recently starred in 2020's Dolittle, just after wrapping the mega-hit Avengers: Endgame, in which he finished his run as Tony Stark/Iron Man in the MCU. The actor will next be seen in Jamie Foxx's comedy All-Star Weekend with Gerard Butler and Benicio Del Toro. Damon was most recently in the thriller Stillwater, as well as the Ridley Scott film, The Last Duel, which he co-wrote with Ben Affleck.
Downey Jr. and Damon would most definitely add to the pedigree of what is looking like another strong ensemble cast for Nolan, who has traditionally put together such casts in previous efforts. While Oppenheimer may not be the standard high-concept yarn that fans expect from Nolan, the director has dabbled in true-life sagas before with Dunkirk, which still managed to be a spectacle in its own right. Regardless of the subject, Nolan always has a particular take on his subject material and builds an amazing cast around it, making for compelling, challenging and often awe-inspiring cinema. It will be interesting to see how he guides Oppenheimer to whatever take he has on the historical period, which will no doubt be a treat for viewers when it debuts in July 2023.
Source: Deadline
