41 theatres worldwide are showing ‘The Odyssey’ in 70mm IMAX. 1 is in Calgary

A 3,000-year-old tale may form the basis of this year’s summer blockbuster, The Odyssey, but the movie was filmed in a way that’s never been done before.

Calgary fans also have a chance to see the movie in a way only a few dozen other cities can.

The Odyssey is the first feature-length movie shot entirely on IMAX film cameras, and just 41 theatres in the world are showing it in its intended format—70 millimetre IMAX film in 1.43:1 aspect ratio.

Calgary’s Cineplex theatre at Chinook Centre started selling tickets to 70mm IMAX showings of The Odyssey a year ago.

“I’m here with 15 of my friends. I remember they dropped the tickets a year ago from today, and we all got on the phone like, ‘Yo, we’ve got to cop these right now,’ and we’re here. We all made it,” said Ini Oladosu, one of the first moviegoers to see the early IMAX screening of the film in Calgary.

It’s an aspect ratio that is larger horizontally than most movie theatres and provides a higher resolution.

A new camera enclosure and audio synchronization process was developed just for The Odyssey, according to IMAX.

“It’s truly a privilege. I honestly think that Calgary is very, very lucky to have this format here still,” said Raza Hyder, a movie fan who also bought tickets a year ago.

“The first screening? I mean, this is surreal.”

Director Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s epic tale runs nearly three hours.

“It’s a great thing. I mean, I think Homer would have approved of it,” said Peter Toohey, a professor of classics at the University of Calgary.

“(Homer) was telling a story from his memory. He was blind and he was an oral poet, as they called it. He’d just see this as a continuation of his work, I think,” he said.

Spooling took hours: projectionist

Production of the movie used about 640 kilometres (2.1 million feet) of film.

The final print of film, sent to just over three dozen theatres, weighs more than 600 pounds.

It arrived in Calgary just over a week ago, head projectionist Melissa McCarthy told CTV News.

It took about eight hours to spool the 70mm film, she said.

“The film projection system hasn’t been used here since Oppenheimer, so there was that. And the print arrives in three giant pieces, so it has to be assembled into one basically large reel on the platter system," McCarthy said.

The assembled reel is more than 17 kilometres (58,000 feet) long.

“We had to test (the system) a couple of times, so I’ve already seen the film. It is stunning. The whole thing is just so beautiful,” she said.

The 70mm IMAX version of the film is also playing in eight other Canadian cities.