
Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey starts filming at Findlater Castle
The block-buster, said to have a budget of £185m, has an all-star ensemble cast including Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Anne Hathaway and Charlize Theron.
It is a retelling of the heroic voyage of Odysseus, King of Ithaca, as he returned from the Trojan War - encountering various adventures along the way.
Slated for a July 2026 release, The Odyssey his thought to be director Nolan's most expensive project to date.
Universal Pictures described it as "a mythic action epic shot across the world using brand new IMAX film technology", while Jim Orr, the studio's distribution chief, said it will be 'a visionary, once-in-a-generation cinematic masterpiece that Homer himself would quite likely be proud of.'
The production has criss-crossed the globe in search of exotic and authentic locations to film.
A new building has been built in the castle grounds (Image: Peter Jolly) Principal photography began at Aït Benhaddou in Morocco in February before filming moved to Pelopennese in Greece and the island of Favignana off the coast of Sicily - believed by some scholars to be one of the locations described in Homer's epic poem.
Now, after shooting in Italy, production crews have arrived in Scotland to film several scenes.
details are being kept under wraps, but our sneak peek shows that Findlater Castle is being used as a backdrop to the action, with a new building constructed in the foreground.
In the Odyssey, the crew encounter a cyclops, are enticed by deadly sirens and get turned into pigs buy the witch-goddess Circe.
Matt Damon as Odysseus
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Variety named Scotland among the list of 'announced locations' for the film in April, while actor Jesse Garcia said: "The locations are beautiful. It's been fun to work with all the actors that we're working with, and everyone is putting everything into it. We're literally emptying the tank every day.
"It's epic. There's going to be some groundbreaking stuff on screen that's really never been done before. [Nolan] keeps upping the game with everything that he does, and the way it's going to look on screen is just going to be incredible."
Details of the scenes are being kept under warps (Image: Peter Jolly) Back in February, Universal unveiled a first look at Matt Damon as Odysseus. Nolan is no stranger to Scotland, having filmed parts of The Dark Knight Rises here.
The opening scene, where supervillain Bane hijacks a plane, was filmed over the Mar Lodge Estate in the Cairngorms National Park.
Scenes from Christopher Nolan's 'THE ODYSSEY will be filmed in Scotland and Ireland.
(via @Variety) pic.twitter.com/75mzCpfr7x — Christopher Nolan Art & Updates (@NolanAnalyst) April 14, 2025
News of The Odyssey filming in Scotland comes after The Herald revealed that the fourth Spiderman film starring Tom Holland will be filmed in Glasgow this summer.
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