Review: Christopher Nolan’s 'The Odyssey' Is a Stunning Epic That Toys With Structure, Genre, and Matt Damon

Well, it’s Wednesday, and tomorrow, the world will feast its eyes on Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey — read my review below if you’re on the fence! And surely, if you’re reading this newsletter, you wouldn’t be.

Let’s see… what’s happening around town? Well, two days after Paramount officially revealed its new genre label, Paramount Primal, which is launching with the elusive rights to Wes Craven’s original script for A Nightmare on Elm Street (side note: wowzer!), studio boss David Ellison and his father, Larry Ellison, are being sued for allegedly conspiring with President Trump to fix their pursuit of Warner Bros. — a pursuit now endangered following lawsuits from multiple state AGs, not to mention the WGA.

Will the PGA, DGA, and gasp, SAG-AFTRA follow suit? Stay tuned…

Over the past 24 hours, I read Ed McBain’s crime novel The Gang’s All Here, which chronicles a single day in the life of a police precinct. I gobbled it up in 3-4 hours — it’s only 200 pages — and absolutely loved it. I think it would make a cool limited series, but it may not be flashy enough to stand out in this day and age. There’s no hook, per se. In fact, it’s kind of like Seinfeld, in that the hook would be that it’s hookless. Hmmm…

I’m planning to read a similar novel soon, All on a Summer’s Day by John Wainwright, whom I wrote about in last week’s newsletter. I’ll keep you posted as I go down that reading rabbit hole.

Speaking of which, a few weeks back, I promised to tell you about the hottest book of the summer… I just didn’t tell you which summer. So allow me to spill the tea.

In April, Simon & Schuster nabbed the publishing rights to a book called Pool Service by Nick Waters. Set in South Florida, the book follows a “pool guy” who services both pools and wives, and gets caught up in one woman’s murderous plans.

The book will be released in Summer 2027, but look for a movie or TV deal to be announced well before then, as I know that multiple buyers are circling the rights to this one, which is going to spark a major bidding war. Just watch… and when it does, remember where you heard it first.

Premium subscribers can continue reading for my review of The Odyssey and my updated rankings of Christopher Nolan’s 13 movies. Also, make sure to come back tomorrow morning for a hot scoop!

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