some things Bowie

'The behind-the-scenes details of Oppenheimer’s production demonstrate the craftsmanship and commitment that went into making the film a success. Christopher Nolan’s three-hour biopic of the father of the nuclear bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer has proven a hit with critics and audiences. The film has earned over $240 million at the box office and currently sits at 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. Reviews demonstrate a widespread appreciation for the movie’s numerous winning aspects, including its thoughtful script, powerhouse cast, and stunning visuals.

As one of the biggest directors working today, Christopher Nolan boasts a thoughtful vision, as well as the resources to pull it off. As such, the story of Oppenheimer’s production is a rich one. The ways in which Nolan chooses to challenge the conventions and standards of filmmaking demonstrate the director’s ambition and skill. However, the film also benefits from the keen insights and creative generosity of the director’s collaborators. Much like the film itself, Oppenheimer’s production paints the picture of a unique and staggering work brought to life by a creative visionary and his diligent team.

10. Oppenheimer's Atomic Bomb Explosion Was Done Practically

The defining moment of Oppenheimer is the successful detonation of the atomic bomb at the Trinity test. For Christopher Nolan, it was important that the Oppenheimer explosion was captured without CGI so that it could be “beautiful and terrifying in equal measure.” For Nolan, this effect can’t be achieved with CGI, something which “inherently is quite comfortable to look at.” Instead, the director chose to detonate a smaller real bomb, using a mixture that involved gasoline, petroleum, aluminum powder, and magnesium flares to produce the blinding light, plumes of fire, and mushrooming effect typical of an atomic bomb. Nolan used forced perspective to give the detonation a sense of scale.

9. Oppenheimer Features No CGI Shots

Oppenheimer’s dramatic explosion isn’t the only surprising use of practical effects. Christopher Nolan even made headlines in the lead-up to the film’s release by remarking that there are “No CGI shots in Oppenheimer”. However, this doesn’t mean that the film employs no CGI at all. Rather, not a single shot in the biopic is made up entirely of CGI. This is no mean feat, since some of the images, particularly the visualizations of atomic particles, would be far easier to render as fully CG creations. In the production of the film, these visualizations were created through a blend of VFX and practical filmmaking that gives the moments real, tangible weight.

8. Cillian Murphy's Oppenheimer Look Was Inspired By David Bowie

Cillian Murphy strikes a vivid figure in Oppenheimer. It’s hard to express exactly what sets Oppenheimer’s look apart from the dozens of other suit-wearing physicists in the movie, but there’s certainly an ephemeral quality to the look that makes it feel distinct. Christopher Nolan used David Bowie as an influence for the scientist’s appearance. According to Murphy (via Vulture), the director would send him photos of the rock star in the 1970s, “when he was so skinny and kind of emaciated but had these wonderfully tailored suits with the trousers, that was the Oppenheimer silhouette.”

7. RDJ, Emily Blunt, & Matt Damon Took Pay Cuts To Be In Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer boasts a shockingly stacked cast, from top-tier character actors to screen veterans and even current A-listers in supporting roles. While the movie’s budget of $100 million is high for a dramatic biopic, it wouldn’t be sufficient to pay the usual salaries of some of its biggest stars. Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, and Robert Downey Jr. are all big box office draws who could easily demand $10-20 million for a film appearance. However, Variety reports that an eagerness to work with Christopher Nolan encouraged the stars to drop their quote dramatically, although the stars all have deals for a share of the film’s backend profits.

6. Oppenheimer Required The Invention Of A New Kind Of Film Stock

One of the trademarks of the latter part of Christopher Nolan’s career has been the director’s employment of IMAX technology. The director meets the scale of his work by suiting its presentation to the largest screen possible. This commitment created a challenge with the black-and-white sequences of Oppenheimer since black-and-white IMAX film stock did not exist when Nolan began developing the film. Instead of compromising on his use of IMAX or the use of grayscale sequences in the film, Nolan had film stock manufacturer Kodak develop the first-ever black-and-white film stock for IMAX (via Collider).

5. Oppenheimer Is (Almost) Too Big For IMAX

Black-and-white stock isn’t the only new IMAX ground Christopher Nolan broke with Oppenheimer. Around the time of the film’s release, Nolan treated the internet to a look at the IMAX film print for Oppenheimer, which is the biggest ever. The reel is over 11 miles long and weighs over 600 lbs. The director is no stranger to pushing the limits of IMAX projectors; his previous IMAX epic Interstellar required a widening of the standard projector platter to accommodate the size of the 167-minute film. However, Nolan reports (via Collider) that the projector is now at its absolute limit with Oppenheimer since the projector’s arm can’t physically bear any more weight.

4. Oppenheimer's Kyoto Bombing Line Was Unscripted

For many viewers, one of the most harrowing moments in Oppenheimer isn’t a dramatic visual, but an offhanded comment made by a minor character. In the scene where US Secretary of War Stimson (James Remar) discusses which Japanese cities should be targets for the atomic bomb, he crosses Kyoto off the list, remarking that he and his wife honeymooned there. It’s a chilling moment based on actual history that powerfully skewers the calculating remoteness of those involved with the bombing. According to Nolan, the devastating Oppenheimer line was suggested by Remar himself, who had learned the fact while conducting his own research into the character.

3. Robert Pattinson Inspired Oppenheimer

Christopher Nolan credits Robert Pattinson, star of his previous blockbuster Tenet, with igniting his interest in the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer. According to CBR, Pattinson gifted Nolan with a book of Oppenheimer’s speeches towards the end of production on Tenet. Nolan became fascinated with the character of Oppenheimer and began to envisage a film that would tell the story. Unfortunately, Nolan wasn’t able to fit Pattinson into Oppenheimer, explaining (via Digital Spy) that the actor is “very much in demand these days”.

2. Most Of Oppenheimer’s Script Is Written In The First Person

Christopher Nolan has long held a reputation as a director who defies conventions, from the backward chronology of Memento to the alternating timeframes of Dunkirk. The director recently revealed to THR that he broke a major screenwriting convention with his Oppenheimer script, by writing large portions in the first person. Nolan explains that, in order to help differentiate the script’s timelines, everything in the film which takes place from Oppenheimer’s own perspective is told in the first person. In the film, this distinction is shown through color grading, with everything outside of Oppenheimer’s perspective shown in stark black-and-white.

1. Cillian Murphy Nearly Played Oppenheimer In A TV Show

. 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔾𝕠𝕓𝕝𝕚𝕟 𝕂𝕚𝕟𝕘 

[ i started this initially as a warm up painting, a study in lighting and texture, but then it took on a life of it’s own so here is my tribute to king of the goblins ] 

David Bowie with Ryuichi Sakamoto, 1983. 📸: Denis O'Regan (Scans from the Ricochet book by Denis O'Regan)

Annie Lennox

Grace Jones

Sinead O‘Connor

Dolores O‘Riordan

Patti Smith

Tracy Chapman

Joan Jett (photo credited to Brad Elterman)

Pauline Black (photo credited to Ebet Roberts)

Meshell Ndegeocello (photo credited to Raymond Boyd)

Tanita Tikaram (photo credited to Bernard Weil)

Come with me and take an obsessive look at Jareth’s ballroom costume from Labyrinth……