‘Peaky Blinders’ famed Cillian Murphy to star in Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’

‘Peaky Blinders’ famed star Cillian Murphy has been cast as J Robert Oppenheimer, inventor of the atomic bomb, in Christopher Nolan’s next movie titled ‘Oppenheimer’. The director has also announced the release date of the movie.

Cillian Murphy will play J Robert Oppenheimer, the American physicist whose role running the Los Alamos Laboratory and involvement in the Manhattan Project has led him to be dubbed the ‘father of the atomic bomb.’

The ‘Peaky Blinders’ star has been confirmed to take the title role in ‘Oppenheimer,’ Christopher Nolan’s upcoming historical epic. The pair are longtime collaborators (Nolan has a stock company of players like Tom Hardy, Michael Caine and Christian Bale who have popped up in multiple films). Nolan and Murphy previously worked together on ‘Batman Begins,’ ‘Inception’ and ‘Dunkirk.’

‘Oppenheimer,’ like previous Nolan films such as ‘Dunkirk’ and ‘The Dark Knight,’ will be shot with IMAX cameras. Universal Pictures will distribute ‘Oppenheimer’ theatrically worldwide and will release the film in North American theaters on July 21, 2023.

The film is written by Nolan and produced by Emma Thomas, Atlas Entertainment’s Charles Roven and Nolan.

‘Oppenheimer’ is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book ‘American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer’ by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin. Production will begin in early 2022.

Although Oppenheimer played a key role in the creation of atomic weapons, he later came to have complicated feelings about their deadly power. He lobbied for international control of nuclear power and opposed the creation of the even more destructive hydrogen bomb.

The film is backed by Universal Pictures after Nolan’s long-standing relationship with Warner Bros appears to have soured .

Almost every film by Nolan since 2002’s Insomnia has been released with Warner Bros. Their partnership included The ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy, ‘Dunkirk’, ‘Inception’ and ‘Tenet’, while they handled the international release of The ‘Prestige’ and ‘Interstellar’ too.

Nolan’s switch to Universal comes after the director criticized Warner Bros. over their 2021 release strategy where films simultaneously released on streaming service HBO Max.

Universal described Nolan’s next project as an “epic thriller that thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it.”