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A Director’s Long-Held Wish Finally Comes True
The time it takes a director to visit a country for the first time is, at times, bound up with the whole of his filmography. Christopher Nolan, carrying his new film “The Odyssey,” entered Korea through Gimpo Business Aviation Center on August 1, making his first-ever visit to the country. At a press conference held the morning of August 3 at the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul in Jongno-gu, he made clear this visit was anything but sudden.
“I really wanted to come to Korea for a long time — that feeling goes back to ‘Interstellar,'” he said. “I heard that ‘Interstellar’ received a great deal of love in Korea and ran in theaters for a long time” — a recollection in which one hears both a long-standing curiosity and a genuine gratitude toward audiences in a country he had never visited who had embraced his film so warmly. The story that he had also tried to make a Korea trip happen around the release of “Tenet,” only to see it fall through because of the pandemic, reveals this visit as a promise deferred across several years finally coming to fruition.
The Time a Master Spent in Seoul, However Brief
Before the official schedule began, Nolan said he took the time to walk the streets of Seoul himself. He walked along the Han River and tried the sogeumppang (salt bread) that has become such a recent sensation — small, personal details that, for a moment, let a traveler’s face show through behind the weight of the word “master.” He said the warm welcome from fans he met on the street left an impression, adding, “Seoul is a city I want to visit again.”
The Korean experiences of those who traveled with him carried their own distinct textures. Matt Damon, who plays Odysseus, returned to Korea for the first time in roughly a decade since “Jason Bourne” in 2016 — and upon arrival, he headed straight to Gocheok Sky Dome to catch a Korean professional baseball game. He described Korean baseball’s distinctive cheering culture as “a different kind of charm from America,” calling the fans’ passion “very impressive.” Charlize Theron said this marked her first official visit for film promotion, though she revealed she had actually traveled to Korea privately with her daughter a few months earlier. Producer Emma Thomas said with a laugh that she’d covered quite a bit of ground — walking the Han River, visiting Olive Young, and trying the sogeumppang recommended by her Korean American son’s girlfriend.
A Trojan Hero’s Journey Returns to the Screen
“The Odyssey” tells the story of Odysseus, the hero who led Troy to defeat, battling the wrath of the gods to return to his wife Penelope and son Telemachus, who wait for him while his kingdom falls into disorder in his absence. Drawing on Homer’s epic as its source material, the film also stands out as the first feature-length film shot entirely on IMAX film cameras. It topped the box office in 69 countries, including North America, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, and India, and posted a global opening of $264.06 million (roughly ₩390.8 billion) — the highest global opening of any film in Nolan’s career.
What the Director and His Leading Man Wanted Audiences to Feel
Matt Damon, on his third collaboration with Nolan, called it “one of the most special projects of my acting career,” adding, “The shoot was extremely demanding, but if offered the same project again, I wouldn’t hesitate to say yes.” Nolan closed the press conference by saying, “I wanted ‘The Odyssey’ to be a film where the audience sails alongside Odysseus and passes through the caves with him, experiencing the journey directly,” and asked audiences to “enjoy the film with the kind of immersion only a theater can offer.”
The Red Carpet at Yeongdeungpo Times Square
The day after the press conference, on August 4, a Korea premiere and red carpet event for “The Odyssey” was held at Times Square in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul. Nolan, producer Emma Thomas, Matt Damon, and Charlize Theron all attended, meeting Korean fans directly. The sight of Hollywood’s top-tier creative team and cast gathering together and walking toward Korean audiences suggests something about the weight the Korean market carries for these filmmakers — well beyond an ordinary promotional stop.
The film opened in Korea on August 5. That a story about a Trojan hero returning home after a long voyage arrives in front of Korean audiences only now, itself the endpoint of a long journey by its director, is the kind of coincidence that makes the film feel just a bit more special to watch.
Source: Dailian (Bang Kyu-hyun), “Director Nolan’s First Korea Visit Press Conference for ‘The Odyssey,'” August 3, 2026; Newdaily (Seo Sung-jin), “Arrives With ‘The Odyssey’ for First-Ever Korea Visit… Accompanied by Matt Damon, Charlize Theron, and Emma Thomas,” August 3, 2026; Universal Pictures Korea official announcement, August 2026.
