For over 25 years, the British-born filmmaker has delivered visual amd stimulating spectacles. Fresh off of Oppenheimer‘s Oscar triumph (including best picture and best director), Nolan’s 13th film, The Odyssey — the first feature shot entirely in IMAX — is no exception to his penchant for thought-provoking and personal blockbusters.

Following universal acclaim from critics and moviegoers alike, Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s ancient Greek poem — which chronicles the Greek hero Odysseus (Matt Damon) on his perilous decade-long journey home after the Trojan War —has debuted to $264 million at the worldwide box office.

It set the auteur’s global opening weekend record and bolstering an existing career cume that exceeds $6.2 billion. Domestically, it notched $124 million, Nolan’s top opening outside of the Batman franchise, with 23.8 percent of that sum coming from IMAX screens.

After being introduced to The Odyssey during school play, Nolan nearly brought Homer’s work to the screen during his short stint developing 2004’s Troy. He was on the project long enough to envision Odysseus’ deceptive, war-altering gift of the Trojan Horse wedged into the beach of Troy, a haunting recurring image that he establishes in Odyssey.

While writing, he saw traces of The Odyssy incorporated into all his films. The Prestige Alfred Borden (Christian Bale), Inception’s Cobb (Leonard DiCaprio) and Dunkirk’s Allied soldiers are ll struggling to get home to their families. Ghost-like figure observing their own home like Interstellar’s Coop (Matthew McConaughey) and The Dark Knight Rises’ Bruce Wayne (Bale). Similar to the latter, it is another leap of faith to free oneself from a type of prison. Odysseus questions his fragmented memories like Memento’s Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce). And like Selina Kyle/Catwoman in Rises, another Anne Hathaway character will bear witness to a recluse’s impressive skills.

Nolan’s mythological epic feels of a piece with the apocalyptic themes of Tenet and Oppenheimer. The Trojan Horse is to Odysseus what the atomic bomb was to Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy); both men fear that their extraordinary ingenuity has destroyed the laws of war and also civilized society.

“Now that I look back on it, there are interesting parallels to Oppenheimer,” Nolan says. “I try to leave each film I do with thematic concerns and questions that stay a little open for me and the audience too. They are things I want to explore further without being too self-conscious about it.”

“The fact that we have mutual respect is what defines civilization. That’s something that cannot be entirely imposed by religious framework. It has to be innate in us to be as prevalent and as effective as it has been over thousands of years.”

Your brief tenure on Troy got the ball rolling decades ago

The great work of Ridley Scott and Denis Villeneuve in world building — that capacity of cinema to open up a window into another world — is always inspiring. In taking on the world of The Odyssey and Greek mythology, you’re looking at a massive world-building project. So enjoying other people’s work in that realm is big part of what makes it feel exciting.

Are you competitive with your fellow filmmakers?

In the friendliest way, you’re competitive.

If you see something in movies that inspires you, you want to try and see what you could add to that.

The healthiest form of competition is to be competitive with all of cinema — cinema history, as well as contemporaries. It’s really about looking back to inspirations from the past. The silent era is always great source of inspiration, but I also remember as a kid going to see the restoration of Lawrence of Arabia when it was released in 1987. That’s just mind-blowing epic. These things stick with you. And if you can take on something along those lines or add something to that conversation or bring that type of experience to modern audience, it’s fun ambition

All your work is present in your iteration of The Odyssey.

There are interesting parallels. I try to leave each film I do with thematic concerns and questions that stay a little bit open for me and hopefully the audience too. They are things that I want to explore further without being too self-conscious about it. In trying to tell The Odyssey for modern audience and looking at the archeological history and the collapse of the Bronze Age, I think there are compelling parallels

Your recent dog ownership rub off on touching story of Odysseus’ hunting dog? 

It’s funny when you look at the films you’ve made and how they parallel your life.

You get married, and then you make a film in which that relationship is important. You have kids, and then you make films about trying to get home for your kids. I had never had a dog, and we got our first dog as the kids were leaving for college. They’d always wanted a dog, and we’d never been able to have one because we were traveling too much. The Odyssey is the ultimate dog movie. I was definitely better prepared to take on the ultimate dog movie having become a dog owner.

They don’t need to beg me to tell a horror story anymore. Just buy a ticket.

The Odyssey whet your appetite? 

It very much whets my appetite for more. But I’ve always believed that horror as a genre has to be approached very carefully from a conceptual point of view. In other words, you have to have an amazing idea. When you go see a film like Obsession, that’s an amazing idea. That movie works like a motherfucker. It’s not about the technical side. It’s not about what technical itches I would have to scratch. It’s about story. So I’m always looking.

I am. It’s interesting you make a parallel with [Speak No Evil] because that’s very dark film. I actually see The Odyssey in brighter terms than that. The fact that we have mutual respect is what, to some extent, defines civilization. I don’t think that’s something that can be entirely imposed religious framework. It has to be innate in us for that to be as prevalent and as effective as it has been over thousands of years.

I had dabbled with IMAX cameras on The Prestige, but it was really on The Dark Knight that we took what had been the province of documentary and brought it into the Hollywood machine. The Hollywood camera crew works in a very different way to a documentary camera crew. There were lot of refinements that we were able to bring on that film: different lenses, different ways of pulling focus and different monitoring systems internally. Over the years, that’s carried on, particularly putting IMAX in collaboration with Panavision for wider variety of lens sets, faster lenses. It’s about getting the barrels of these lenses to work effectively with the focus control systems that Hollywood ACs use. All of that is a bit arcane and technical, but it’s always an evolution.

For years, you relied on the same craftspeople until van Hoytema became the first major change

I can’t think of a diplomatic way to answer that other than to say it’s always balance between wanting to work with the same people that you have an ease of familiarity with and then wanting new ideas and fresh perspectives. I’ve always tried to strike that balance in different ways at different times. I’ve been very fortunate with all the crew members, starting with Wally Pfister as my director of photography for years. He then went off to direct himself, and that was when I started working with Hoyte

Did Rob hand me some horror novel by Stephen King that’ll make an excellent adaptation? Sadly, no, that is not the case. But I had great time working with Rob again, and I will always be grateful to him for his wrap gift on Tenet.

Rereleasing The Prestige to honor its 20th anniverary

I’m thrilled that they’re going to re-release The Prestige because it’s one of his most underrated performances. I’m really excited to bring it to fresh audiences. We’re going to do 70 millimeter blow-ups. Wally Pfister shot it anamorphically on 35 millimeter, and he did incredible job. I screened 35 mil print to check it, and his photography is extraordinary. Nathan Crowley’s production design is amazing. So it’s going to look absolutely beautiful blown up to 70 millimeter.

Loyalty to actors beyond movie stars, Josh Stewart, Sean Avery the late Larry Holden  

Consistently under budget and ahead of schedule

It’s not a given because all filmmaking teams approach things differently in terms of prioritization and their choices made on that basis. If I stayed on budget and on schedule, I got less interference. I didn’t give people a reason to panic. That’s when you find people breathing down your neck and questioning everything. If you can stay on the right side of that line, that buys you different type of creative freedom.

All filmmaking is a creative compromise, and I prefer to make those compromises on my own terms. Part of those terms are being on budget and on schedule. Then those decisions are in your hands, but it does involve compromise. Not every filmmaker sees it that way, and that’s completely valid.