Christopher Nolan's World War II drama
"Oppenheimer" just added a new batch of big names. Oscar winner
Rami Malek (
"Bohemian Rhapsody",
"No Time to Die"), Oscar nominee
Florence Pugh (
"Black Widow",
"Midsommar") and
"Uncut Gems" director
Benny Safdie have been added to an already star-studded ensemble that also includes
Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Cillian Murphy and
Emily Blunt.
The film carries a $100 million budget and will focus on the true story of the development of the atomic bomb. It has been described as an epic thriller that thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it.
Nolan will direct from his own script based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel
"American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer".
Murphy will play the lead role of the theoretical physicist who helped develop the atomic bomb during World War II, while Blunt is cast as Oppenheimer's wife, Katherine "Kitty" Oppenheimer.
Pugh joins the cast as Jean Tatlock, a Communist Party member who had a love affair with Oppenheimer. Safdie stars as Edward Teller, the Hungarian physicist who is known as the father of the hydrogen bomb and a member of the Manhattan Project. Malek is reportedly playing a scientist.
Damon plays Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves, the director of the Manhattan Project. Downey is playing Lewis Strauss, the infamous chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission who initiated hearings that questioned Oppenheimer's loyalty to the United States and famously had the scientist's security clearance revoked.
"Oppenheimer" will open in theaters on July 21, 2023.