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Christopher Nolan’s Manhattan Project movie ‘Oppenheimer’ recruits Robert Downey Jr. and Matt Damon

By Stephen Iervolino Nov 2, 2021 | 1:00 PM


ABC/Randy Holmes — Jens Kalaene/picture alliance via Getty Images

Director Christopher Nolan‘s movie Oppenheimer, about J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the creators of the atomic bomb, has just added some nuclear level star power. 

The Hollywood Reporter notes that Robert Downey Jr. and Matt Damon will join Nolan repeat player Cillian Murphy in the project; he’s playing the titular scientist.

The trade notes Damon will play Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves, the military director of the secret Manhattan Project that was behind the atomic bomb’s creation. 

For his part, Downey, will reportedly play Lewis Strauss, the Atomic Energy Commissioner who ended up getting Oppenheimer’s security clearance revoked after the scientist felt conflicted about unleashing the devastating power on the world. 

Emily Blunt, who starred in this year’s hits A Quiet Place Part II and Jungle Cruise, will reportedly play Kitty Oppenheimer, the physicist’s wife, in the project that’s based on the Pulitzer-winning 2005 book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

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