The Odyssey and Brilliant Marketing
If you haven’t seen The Odyssey yet, or read Homer, I won’t spoil the ending for you. What I do want to talk about is the brilliance of the marketing campaign that went into this movie. Whether you’re a Christopher Nolan fan or not, whether you have an opinion about Lupita Nyong’o playing Helen of Troy or not, or whether or not you now have strange feelings for the gorgeous Zendaya… I want you to put all that aside for a moment so that we can talk about the planning, the phrasing, and the storytelling that went into releasing this movie.
First, they started talking about this movie YEARS ago, building up anticipation. No one else has properly tackled the enormity of The Odyssey since the tv miniseries back in 1997 with Armond Asante, Vanessa Williams, and Isabella Rossellini. (Here it is on IMDB) THAT version was so well done, even given the special effects available at the time, that no one has DARED touch the dang thing since. Back in Feb 2025 they started teasing out the cast members, and people lost their ever-loving minds. It’s the kind of cast that makes you stop doomscrolling and say… out loud… “dude.”
Then they said it would be directed by none other than Christopher Nolan.
BOOM.
And shot only in IMAX.
GASP double boom.
You know how there’s a difference between a movie and a film? Like, Masters of the Universe is a great movie. Inglorious Basterds is an amazing film. A film changes you forever, sticks with you, makes you want to enjoy the experience of it over and over again. Like the Godfather. < – I could end the blog right there but I won’t.
So Christopher Nolan, known for making some of the biggest, most epic films of our time, is going to do it, and film it in the most technologically advanced format available. Do you see it in a regular theatre? Do you make a road trip to go see it in an IMAX theatre – which for me personally, the nearest one is almost three hours away.
Hmm… that sounds like scarcity to me? Creating a product everyone wants but can only get in limited amounts?
Now going to see this movie is a night out. A long one at that, with the movie being three hours. This isn’t a ho-hum let’s see something movie. This is planning three weeks out, buying specific seats, going to dinner ahead of time and remembering to pee before you go into the theatre so you don’t miss a second.
We are now release + 12 days, and the conversation has turned from, “are you gonna go see it” to “what do you mean you haven’t seen it yet.”
It’s an event.
It’s creating FOMO on a huge scale, even as the same actors and actresses are peddling Spiderman at premieres now.
People are talking, speculating, and yes arguing about the most minute details across social media, from the comparison to the literature to the language used to (sigh) what gender someone is who played some part. But people are talking about it. Not about ICE, or what happens now that the World Cup is over, THIS is what happens now that the World Cup is over. THIS!!!
I saw a review that said that it doesn’t matter if you’re a fan of Greek literature, a fan of the actors, or a tech-geek about the format of the filming, you want to go see this movie. It’s turned the build up to the movie into an experience before the actual experience of watching it.
Scarcity. Technological advancement. Innovative direction with some of the greatest actors of our time telling a mythical tale about a dude making questionable life choices.
I think they’re going to be talking about the marketing of this film long after everyone has seen it.
And I know I’m going to remember the feeling of seeing that giant wooden horse full of soldiers hit the screen for the first time, knowing the work that went into it, forever.
