The Odyssey: Christopher Nolan talked to us about making a 2,800-year-old story feel new

About this episode

The topic: Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is turning out to be the event of the summer, with screenings selling out at theaters a year in advance. Nolan shares how he adapted the Greek epic for a modern audience. On what makes a successful adaptation: “If somebody watching the film who read the poem in high school or something, who doesn’t know it that well but knows it pretty well — if that person feels that my additions or my allusions actually were from the poem, then I think I've succeeded.” The dialogue: “I’m not having the actors speak with mid-Atlantic or some British accents the way Hollywood in the 50s or 60s often did… We want it…