Himesh Patel eyes Christopher Nolan for a post-The Odyssey leap into War and Peace because apparently, Nolan has not gone big enough yet. Nolan has built a reputation for turning famous stories into sweeping, high-stakes cinema, whether he is reimagining The Dark Knight, drawing from a novelistic sci-fi framework like Inception, or tackling a real-life historical figure in Oppenheimer.

With The Odyssey already showing his appetite for epic material, his next project could, in theory, push that even further. And now one of his The Odyssey actors seems to be nudging him toward something even more ambitious.

Speaking to Variety at The Odyssey red carpet, Himesh Patel suggested that Christopher Nolan should go after Tolstoy next, specifically War and Peace.

“Oh my Gosh! I couldn't tell you, War and Peace. It's been done on TV by my friend,” he said to Variety, before adding that a grand IMAX version of a Tolstoy epic could be the kind of challenge Nolan thrives on.

The idea fits Nolan’s style, which often turns dense, large scale source material into something cinematic and immediate. Patel’s suggestion is especially interesting because War and Peace is one of the most famous and daunting literary epics ever written, packed with w, politics, and family drama on a vast scale.

A Nolan adaptation would almost certainly emphasize spectacle, structure, and psychological tension, much like his earlier prestige epics, as Patel put it to Variety.

“Maybe a grand cinematic IMAX version of some Tolstoy, some Russian epic.” That makes his pitch sound less like a joke and more like a genuine wish for Nolan to take on an even bigger mountain after The Odyssey.

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While Patel imagines Nolan scaling an even larger literary peak, the filmmaker himself is still unpacking what drove him toward The Odyssey in the first place.

Christopher Nolan says The Odyssey grew out of a childhood memory that stayed with him for decades, but it was also shaped by the creative fallout from Oppenheimer. The film reflects that mix of unease and hope, with Nolan explaining that he was still carrying some of the emotional weight from his last project.

“I had a funny combination of despair and optimism,” he said to USA Today, describing the mindset that carried him into his Homer adaptation.

In talking about his approach, Nolan said he wanted to stay faithful to the version of The Odyssey that had lived in his own imagination for years rather than remake it into something modernized or ironic.

“I didn’t want to do a revisionist version,” he said. That instinct helps explain why the movie leans into myth, scale, and emotional conflict instead of trying to strip the story down into something smaller or more contemporary.

He also drew inspiration from films that balance spectacle with inner struggle, including The Dark Knight trilogy, The Last Temptation of Christ, Jaws, and Alien. Those influences helped him shape a version of Odysseus that feels legendary but still human, while also grounding the monsters and miracles in a more tactile cinematic world. 

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What do you think about Himesh Patel’s idea of Christopher Nolan taking on War and Peace next? Let us know in the comments.