Christopher Nolan wrote Oppenheimer script in the first person

In order to get into the head of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan did something he’s never done before — he wrote the script in the first person.

“I actually wrote in the first-person, which I’ve never done before,” Christopher Nolan told Empire. “I don’t know if anyone’s ever done it before. But the point of it is, with the colour sequences, which is the bulk of the film, everything is told from Oppenheimer’s point of view — you’re literally kind of looking through his eyes.” Nolan added that even the stage directions were told from the point of view of Oppenheimer, which he admits was an “odd thing to do, but it was a reminder to me of how to shoot the film. It was a reminder to everybody involved in the project, ‘Okay, this is the point of view of every scene.’“

Christopher Nolan continued, “I wanted to really go through this story with Oppenheimer; I didn’t want to sit by him and judge him. That seemed a pointless exercise. That’s more the stuff of documentary, or political theory, or history of science. This is a story that you experience with him — you don’t judge him. You are faced with these irreconcilable ethical dilemmas with him.“

Cillian Murphy stars as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it. As one would expect with a Christopher Nolan movie, the cast is pretty packed. In addition to Murphy, the film also stars Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Gary Oldman, Rami Maleck, Florence Pugh, Kenneth Branagh, and more. The film recently received an R-rating, making it Christopher Nolan’s first R-rated movie in over twenty years.

As the film was shot on IMAX stock, it will be screened in the biggest format across the nation, with the prints said to be 11 miles worth of film weighing in at nearly 600 pounds. The IMAX screenings will range from 70mm to IMAX Digital, 35mm, Dolby Cinema, and more. Oppenheimer will hit theaters on July 21st.