Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” production team actually had to engineer the 65mm black and white Imax film created for the production in order to shoot the movie.
A new behind the scenes featurette, “Oppenheimer – Shooting For Imax,” breaks it all down. Watch the embed below.
“How are we going to do it? Because 65mm black and white was a format that didn’t exist,” cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema said. “So there was a lot of engineering that went into that.”
“Chris is always pushing the boundaries and innovating which each film he does,” executive producer Thomas Hayslip said. “On this one, one of the things that was really important in the script was the juxtaposition of color and back and white.”
Hayslip added: “We actually had to create the black and white film that we were using to shoot.”
Nolan conducted tests with the black and white film and was pleased with the results.
“We were able to test large format black and white, put it up on a giant Imax screen and have a look at it. And the results were just magical and inspiring,” Nolan said.
“Oppenheimer” stars Cillian Murphy as the famed physicist largely responsible for the creation of the atomic bomb that was developed during World War II. The film’s cast is stacked with A-listers including Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Rami Malek, Gary Oldman, Casey Affleck, Benny Safdie, Kenneth Branagh and more.
“Oppenheimer” hits theaters on July 21.