Robert Downey Jr. And Matt Damon In Talks For Christopher Nolan's Next Movie

Christopher Nolan's next movie, his first big one since parting ways with Warner Bros. after his fiery statements about HBO Max, could be adding two more very big names. Deadline reports that Robert Downey Jr. and Matt Damon are in talks to join Nolan's atomic bomb movie Oppenheimer.

Their involvement is not confirmed at this stage, however. Previous reports said Cillian Murphy and Emily Blunt were in discussions for parts in the period film. There is no word yet, however, on the specific parts that each actor might play, if they do indeed sign deals to appear. The Hollywood Reporter says Murphy will play Oppenheimer and Blunt will play his wife, Kitty. Damon will play Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves, while Downey Jr. will play Lewis Strauss, the Atomic Energy Commissioner who went after Oppenheimer, according to the report.

Nolan is writing and directing Oppenheimer, which tells the story of the scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer who spearheaded the Manhattan Project. This group created the technology behind the atomic bomb that the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

Oppenheimer is slated for release in July 2023. The film is based on the book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

After bearing witness to the deadly devastation of the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer gave a speech where he referenced Hindu scripture, saying, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." Oppenheimer passed away in 1967.

Nolan made his most successful movies for Warner Bros., including Inception, Interstellar, his Batman trilogy, Dunkirk, and Tenet most recently. For Oppenheimer, Nolan is signed up with Fast & Furious studio Universal, and the decision to drop WB came after Nolan strongly criticized WarnerMedia's decision to release the studio's 2021 theatrical films day and date on HBO Max.

WB is dropping this strategy for 2022, as WarnerMedia has signed 45-day exclusive windows with multiple movie chains in the US. But Nolan is moving on, regardless.

Netflix tried to land Nolan's new movie, with movie boss Scott Stuber saying he planned to stop at nothing to encourage Nolan to make his next film with Netflix. But it didn't work out in the end.