Hollywood siblings often come in pairs or trios that each leave a different mark on the industry. Joel and Ethan Coen built a shared filmmaking voice, the Affleck brothers have both worked in front of and behind the camera, and Christopher and Jonathan Nolan have become one of the best-known creative brother duos in modern cinema.

But Christopher Nolan has one more brother too, and his life has allegedly been very far removed from the polished world of film.

The theory is that Christopher Nolan’s older brother Matthew Nolan was once accused of being a hitman and allegedly used the name “Oppenheimer” as part of his identity. According to the reporting summarised by Newsweek’s fact check, Matthew was arrested in 2009 in connection with the murder of Robert Cohen in Costa Rica, and court documents alleged he used the alias “MM McCall-Oppenheimer.” That does not mean he was proven to be a hitman, only that the allegation existed.

The important part is the verdict from Newsweek’s fact check. The claim that Matthew Nolan was a hitman named Oppenheimer was judged misleading. The piece says there is no concrete evidence that he was a hired k*****, and that he was never convicted of being one. The surviving evidence appears to support only that the alias may have been used, not that the full rumour is true.

That is why the story keeps resurfacing whenever Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer or The Odyssey gets attention. It is a strange real-world coincidence, but coincidence is all it appears to be. Matthew Nolan allegedly had legal trouble, but the fact-checkers do not back the internet’s more dramatic version of the story. 

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While the rumor continues to circulate, Nolan’s work in cinemas is once again dominating headlines for very different reasons.

IMAX China is preparing a major rollout for The Odyssey, with most of its nearly 800 screens expected to play Christopher Nolan’s film when it opens in mainland China on August 14. The scale of the plan shows just how much faith the company has in Nolan’s drawing power and in the film’s potential to become a true event release in the market.

That confidence is tied to what IMAX China calls the Christopher Nolan effect, meaning the director’s films have become dependable box office magnets for Chinese audiences. In between all of that, The Odyssey is also on track to pass Oppenheimer’s lifetime domestic box office in just 13 days, which is another sign of how fast the film is moving. The China push could add even more fuel to a run that has already been extraordinary worldwide.

IMAX China says the film is drawing especially strong interest in tier one and tier two cities, and ticket demand has already been intense even before mainland pre sales begin. The company has also pointed to strong IMAX share in places like Hong Kong and Taiwan, where the format has pulled in an unusually large slice of the market.

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What do you think about the viral claim surrounding Matthew Nolan and the ‘Oppenheimer’ alias? Let us know in the comments.