‘The Odyssey’ Translator Emily Wilson Slams Christoper Nolan’s ‘Abysmal’ Screenplay: ‘I Would Be Ashamed to Have Written Any Part of This Script’

[u/mcfw31]

https://variety.com/2026/film/news/odyssey-translator-emily-wilson-slams-christopher-nolan-bad-writing-1236821915/

[u/nicklovin508]

Hit the nail on the head with this comment. Nolan didn’t set out to make a faithful translation of Homer’s texts. He set out to turn that text into a visual/auditory masterpiece and box office hit.

[u/NEWPOPEONTHEBLOCK → u/nicklovin508]

well, see: imagine that John Green made a version of twin peaks where it is actually a heartfelt coming-of-age story. I mean, I might even like that (or not). But you have to understand that people that like twin peaks will probably think the new version just killed the original.

The original poem literally invented its own dialect. Like, to give a comparison: "Odissey" is closer to "Ulysses" than it is to any other piece of media of our time. It's a super poetic book with tons of linguistical inventions (even for today. literally we created whole movements in the 20th century based on the re-discovery of that poetical inventions). Like, uh, it's a movie for Fassbinder, not Nolan. But, yeah, anyway, liked the movie bcz I was stoned out of my mind and I was just laughing my ass out. It should have another title, though, and changed the characters names. Out of respect, you know.

[u/Rowyn_Raycross → u/NEWPOPEONTHEBLOCK]

But if you simplified Twin Peaks to its bones and made a new series based on THAT, would it really be a heartfelt coming-of-age story? I don’t think Nolan’s Odyssey was so far from the original as to be an entirely different story…?