An Interesting Tidbit Concerning the New Oppenheimer Movie

The buzz surrounding the new Christopher Nolan movie, "Oppenheimer," is reaching higher levels than any other movie released so far this summer season.

Initial reviews are proving quite positive, with a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, a 5 out of 5 from Entertainment Weekly and a very impressive 91% on Metacritic.

Event though the movie seems to memory hole the existence of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, which I wrote about, audiences here in the Tri-Cities will more than likely flock to the cinema for this three-hour long epic.

Interestingly, the movie was shot entirely on I-Max film; a 70 mm format. Compare that to a standard movie at 35 mm, and you can imagine how epic an I-Max version would look compared to the standard size... especially for a movie like "Oppenheimer."

However, with the I-Max format comes some restrictions and technical difficulties.

First off, with the film being twice the size of standard movie film, the weight of the reels can become quite a challenge. According to director Christopher Nolan, the weight of the I-Max reel for "Oppenheimer" weighs in at over 600 pounds! This 3-hour long film is considered to be the "outer limit" for what the I-Max format can handle.

Beyond that, because of the films run-time, the actual length of the film is also most impressive: reportedly standing at 11 miles long! That's just one copy of the film.

Nolan says he intentionally shot the film in the I-Max format in order to present his vision on a much wider screen.  Also giving him more freedom when it comes to cinematography and scene layout.

The movie apparently is in both color and black and white. This led to the creation of the first ever black and white I-MAX film stock, which was created by Kodak and Fotokem, according to the AP.

With all of the advances made in I-Max technology just for this movie, I'm sure that Nolan is hoping for huge returns in order to make all of the extra work put into this film worth the extra time and money.

"Oppenheimer" will premiere Friday worldwide and be shown on both standard screens as well as in I-MAX (albeit only 30 I-Max screens). Although Christopher Nolan says he recommends seeing the film at an I-Max theater.