Oppenheimer: Christopher Nolan’s next epic is officially rated R

Christopher Nolan’s next epic, Oppenheimer, is rated R, the director’s first mature rating since 2002’s Insomnia.

You might want to leave the kiddies at home for Christopher Nolan’s next epic because Oppenheimer is officially rated R. The mature rating marks Nolan’s first R rating since 2002’s Insomnia, the crime thriller starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank.

In addition to revealing the film’s rating, details about Oppenheimer’s film reels are making the rounds online. The film clocks in at nearly three hours, making it the director’s most extended feature. According to The Associated Press, IMAX prints of Oppenheimer are “11 miles of film stock” that “weigh some 600 pounds.” Nolan shot the movie in a large format, with IMAX screenings ranging from 70mm to IMAX digital, 35mm, Dolby Cinema, and more.

Nolan wants fans to know that the “best possible experience” for watching Oppenheimer is through the IMAX 70mm film format. However, only 25 theaters across North America provide audiences with that option. Locations where you can view Oppenheimer in the IMAX 70mm format, include AMC Universal CityWalk in Los Angeles, the AMC Lincoln Square in New York, the Cinemark Dallas, the Regal King of Prussia near Philadelphia, and the AutoNation IMAX in Fort Lauderdale.

“The sharpness and the clarity and the depth of the image is unparalleled,” Nolan told AP. “The headline, for me, is by shooting on IMAX 70mm film, you’re really letting the screen disappear. You’re getting a feeling of 3D without the glasses. You’ve got a huge screen and you’re filling the peripheral vision of the audience. You’re immersing them in the world of the film.”

The actual plot that the film will follow has technically yet to be released, but audiences know that the movie will center around the life and events of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy). Specifically, the film will focus on Oppenheimer’s involvement with the Manhattan Project, the moral difficulties he faced with undertaking such a task, and the actions that he took after that to ensure that his creation would not tear the world apart.

For those unaware, the Manhattan Project was the name for creating the first atomic bombs during World War II. Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos laboratory director and the lead theoretical physicist on the project, becoming the world’s most well-known scientist after the bomb’s detonation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In modern history, Oppenheimer is commonly called ‘the father of the atomic bomb.’

Despite the Manhattan Project and Oppenheimer being two of the most well-known names in American scientific history, the movie will be based on the book American Prometheus, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Oppenheimer’s life, written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.

Christopher Nolan directs Oppenheimer from a script he wrote with Kai Bird and Marin Sherwin. Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Alden Ehrenreich, Gary Oldman, Josh Hartnett, David Dastmalchian, Jack Quaid, Dane DeHaan, Olivia Thirlby, Alex Wolff, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, and Gustaf Skarsgård lead the cast.

Will you try to see Oppenheimer in IMAX 70mm, or is a standard theater screen sufficient? What do you think about the movie being rated R? Let us know in the comments below.