"Somehow that thing was floating": Matt Damon recalls how Nolan braved the sea despite The Odyssey production boat wreckage

The team behind The Odyssey kicked off the movie's Oscar campaign this Tuesday with the screening of a behind-the-scenes documentary. The 75-minute documentary, Behind the Scenes of ‘The Odyssey,' premiered at the Spielberg Theater on the Universal Studios lot. This documentary revealed several challenges the production team faced while making the movie.

One such challenge was when the Scottish sea tore apart one of the production's boats by ripping out the transom and hull, which was to be used in the filming of the Laestrygonian scene. Nolan informed the marine coordinator, Neil Andrea, that the boat was required for filming the very next day.

But Andrea tried to convince Nolan that fixing the boat within a day was impossible given the nature of the destruction. Nolan remained undeterred, and Matt Damon recounted what Nolan told the marine coordinator at the screening:

“And Chris turned to Neil and said, ‘I don’t accept that. And somehow that thing was floating the next day, and we shot on it.”

The Odyssey producer Emma Thomas has something to say about this

Universal Pictures Presents A Special Screening Of "The Odyssey" At The TCL Chinese Theater - Source: Getty

Emma Thomas, in a jovial mood, came to the defense of her husband, saying that Christopher Nolan is generally a pragmatic person. Christopher Nolan himself spoke about realizing the challenges posed by the sea while writing the movie.

The British filmmaker also revealed that he hoped to include minimal boat time while writing The Odyssey script. But then Nolan realized that it was impossible to make the Greek epic without maximum involvement of boats:

“But it’s ‘The Odyssey.’ Of course, we’re going to be on this boat for months.”

Andrea and his team transformed Scandinavian Viking ship replicas into Greek warships and hid small engines inside them. Later, the team filmed the storm destruction sequences on the Universal backlot. Jet engines blasted the ship, which was mounted on a gimbal. However, the destroyed ships were not the only challenge the team faced.

The Trojan Horse was stuck in customs

The Trojan Horse is one of the movie's key props. However, the team faced significant challenges to get it to the film set. Production designer Ruth De Jong discussed the challenge the team faced while bringing the horse to the movie's shooting location in Morocco.

It appears that Nolan moved up the production start date two days earlier, but the Trojan Horse prop was not there. De Jong recalled the time when she told Nolan the Trojan Horse was stuck in customs:

“I’m like, ‘What? The horse is in boxes in customs.’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, anyways, carry on.’”

The team managed to get the prop out of customs and planted it in the sand, like we see in the movie's opening sequence. However, an incoming tide knocked the Trojan Horse prop out, prompting Nolan to dryly remark that they should film this the next day. However, the team finally managed to film the scene as they planned. Then, Nolan and the team filmed the fall of Troy in a practical 2.5-acre city set.