Matt Damon and Robert Downey Jr. have been enlisted into Christopher Nolan’s next feature film, “Oppenheimer.”
Nolan is the king of big budget flicks, and “Oppenheimer” stands to continue his reign. The biopic centers on The Manhattan Project and J. Robert Oppenheimer, widely considered of the godfather of the atomic bomb.
Damon and Downey Jr. join Cillian Murphy, who is reportedly portraying the theoretical physicist who proved key in developing the atomic bomb during World War II. Emily Blunt is also among the cast, playing Oppenheimer’s wife, Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer.
Universal describes the film 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.”
Damon is set to play Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves, the director of the Manhattan Project. Downey will play Lewis Strauss, the infamous Atomic Energy Commissioner who initiated hearings that questioned Oppenheimer’s loyalty to the United States and infamously had the scientist’s security revoked.
The film is adapted from the 2005 novel “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer” by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin, winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
“Oppenheimer” is set to be released July 21, 2023.
