Nolan shares 'Oppenheimer' footage to huge applause from movie theatre owners

LAS VEGAS: Christopher Nolan took the stage at CinemaCon on Wednesday (U.S. Pacific Time) to unveil dramatic new footage from 'Oppenheimer', his sweeping look at the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the American theoretical physicist who helped create the atomic bomb, reports 'Variety'.

A big advocate for the big screen and a critic of streaming, Nolan was greeted with huge applause from the movie theater owners gathered for the convention, according to 'Variety'.

"I know of no more dramatic tale with higher stakes," he said of his latest opus.

The footage shared by Nolan, 'Variety' notes, has scenes of the physicist's team engaged in the top-secret work of making the bomb, but the movie also spins forward in time to a point where Russia has developed its atomic technology, triggering suspicions of espionage at Los Alamos.

Nolan said the film's protagonist made decisions that still reverberate to this day. One of the most acclaimed and financially successful filmmakers in Hollywood, Nolan has helmed the 'Dark Knight' trilogy, as well as 'Inception' and 'Dunkirk'.

The film, which Universal is releasing on July 21, is one of the most ambitious big studio summer releases in years, according to 'Variety'.

It is a season that is usually reserved for escapist fare and superhero flicks, but 'Oppenheimer' grapples with weighty themes, not to mention a scientific development that re-shaped the course of history.

Oppenheimer, played by Cillian Murphy, guided the Manhattan Project as head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, before becoming a critic of weapons of mass destruction.

Murphy, 'Variety' says, is a veteran of previous Nolan films such as 'Dunkirk', 'Inception' and 'Batman Begins' (he nearly played the Dark Knight, but lost out to Christian Bale and portrayed the Scarecrow instead).

The ensemble cast also includes Matt Damon as General Leslie Groves, Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, a member of the Atomic Energy Commission, and Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer's wife, Katherine, apart from Rami Malek and Florence Pugh.