Latest news with #Odysseus
STV News
a day ago
- Entertainment
- STV News
Matt Damon in Scotland to film Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey
Hollywood star Matt Damon has been pictured in Scotland where he is filming Christopher Nolan's new film The Odyssey. The Good Will Hunting actor posed for photos with gymgoers at Motion Fitness in Buckie, Moray, and staff at Cullen Antiques Centre. The movie is an adaptation of Homer's epic poem about the heroic king Odysseus – portrayed by Damon. Peter Jolly Hollywood star Matt Damon posed for photos with gymgoers at Motion Fitness in Buckie, Moray. Peter Jolly It's described by Universal Pictures as a 'mythic action epic' and is filming at Findlater Castle overlooking the Moray Firth. The film boasts an ensemble cast jam-packed with stars including Zendaya, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong'o, Charlize Theron and Jon Bernthal. Universal Pictures The Odyssey: A promotional image of star Matt Damon in costume as Odysseus. Universal Pictures The movie follows the Ancient Greek king of Ithaca's journey home after the Trojan War. Nolan and his cast are shooting across the world using brand new IMAX film technology. Earlier this month, the world's largest ocean-going Viking-style longship sailed into Buckie Harbour as part of the shoot in the north of Scotland. It is due to be released on July 17, 2026. Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Scotsman
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Hollywood superstar Matt Damon spotted in Moray ahead of The Odyssey filming
Matt Damon will lead the all-star cast as Odysseus, the legendary Greek king of Ithaca. It is Damon's third time appearing in a Christopher Nolan film, though it will be his first leading role for the director. | AFP via Getty Images The actor, who is sporting a long beard for his role as Odysseus in Christopher Nolan's historical epic, has been taking pictures with fans in Buckie and Cullen. Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Matt Damon has been spotted taking pictures with locals in Moray ahead of filming for a major blockbuster. The Hollywood star posed for pictures with locals at a gym in Buckie, and also stopped for photos with staff at an antiques centre in Cullen. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The star is in Scotland ahead of filming for Christopher Nolan's upcoming historical drama, The Odyssey. Earlier this month, crews were spotted constructing buildings around Findlater Castle, which is closed to the public until July 25. Production crews and large boats for the film have also been spotted at Burghead Harbour in Elgin, as well as Buckie Harbour. Set for release in 2026, The Odyssey will follow the journey of the ancient Greek king of Ithaca as he returns home following the Trojan War. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad As Odysseus, Damon will lead an all-star cast including Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya and more. The upcoming historical epic is Nolan's first film since Oppenheimer. Crews have also been seen filming in Glasgow and Edinburgh earlier this month for J.J. Abrams' upcoming blockbuster Ghostwriter, which stars Glen Powell, Jenna Ortega, Samuel L Jackson and Emma Mackey.
Spectator
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Spectator
The dangers of toxic femininity
The American critic and classicist Daniel Mendelsohn has just published a new translation of The Odyssey. In his superb introduction, Mendelsohn also does something that many modern translators and critics avoid, which is to point to the oddness and different-ness of Homer's world. For that and many other reasons, reading Mendelsohn's fresh and clear translation was a counterweight to one of the great imperatives of our time: 'Let us look at this long-ago thing only in order to see if it can shed any light on the glorious us and now.' Yet a timeless work remains timeless both because we marvel at the different nature of the world described and because it occasionally tells us things we have forgotten. Which brings me to the Sirens. Every schoolchild knows the story. Odysseus is warned by the goddess Circe of the challenges he will meet on the way home to Ithaca. Among them are the Sirens, whose cry is so beguiling that Odysseus must order his men to stop up their ears with wax as they row past. Odysseus himself must be tied to the mast as they navigate the waters so that while he alone can hear the Sirens, he will not encourage his men to row towards them. Like everyone, I supposed I knew the story, but there is something in the clarity of Mendelsohn's translation which brought a fresh thought to me. The Sirens get only eight lines, but they are enough to make Odysseus risk everything and need tying even more firmly to his ship's mast. I'd never given much thought before to why the song of the Sirens should be so beguiling. I think I imagined their song was merely beautiful, like Wagner's Rhinemaidens. But there is something else. Here is how Mendelsohn renders their song: O Odysseus, rich in praise, great glory of the Acheans, Come hither now, halt your ship and hear the sound of our voice! For no one has ever rowed past us aboard his black-hulled ship Before he's heard the voice from our lips with its honeyed harmonies, But once he has taken his pleasure, he returns knowing so much more. For well we know all the hardships that there, in Troy's sprawling plains, Both the Argives and the Trojans endured through the will of the gods. And we know whatever happens on the earth, which nourishes all. That's it, but enough to make Odysseus lose his self-control. As I read it, I thought of several happenings on our own island. This month parliament debated two pieces of society-changing legislation. One was the decision to extend the date at which women can terminate life in the womb. The other was legislation that means that from now on we may choose the day on which we die. These are interesting priorities for a country. But the debates on extending abortion limits and the introduction of euthanasia came like a pincer movement. On the one hand a woman will be able to abort a child after six months of pregnancy. Meaning that a life that is viable out of the womb may be killed inside it. I happened to be with a friend this week who is six months pregnant, and was horrified that the child she and her husband were already caring for would be deemed good to abort in England and Wales. And while the proposer of the amendment, Tonia Antoniazzi MP, was content with simply allowing women to abort a baby at any point during pregnancy, Stella Creasy MP tried to use the opportunity to enshrine abortion at any stage as a 'human right'. At the other end of the life spectrum, MPs spent the same week voting – and approving – a bill to finally make euthanasia (or 'assisted dying') into another 'human right' in this country. Kim Leadbeater seems to have made it her life mission to retract our lives at the opposite end from Antoniazzi and Creasy. As I have said for many years, there is no country into which euthanasia has been introduced in which the slope from the arena of palliative care has not slipped into the killing of the mentally ill, the young and those who feel they have become a burden on their families or the state. And if anyone in this country thinks the state will be competent to decide who does or does not feel compelled to end their life, they should look at how easy it is just to get a GP appointment. But never mind, because in all these cases the argument and rationale has each time been reduced to 'compassion' and 'understanding'. Leadbeater and Creasy are masters at making speaking and emoting the same thing. Both present their moral arguments – such as they are – in a way in which their faces crumple and voices crack with empathy at all times. Everything is about 'understanding', 'listening', 'speaking for' and 'alleviating' the suffering of others. Which brings me back to the Sirens. Because what is so compelling to Odysseus is that the Sirens' song tells him that on their island, alone, he will be understood. The Sirens promise that they, uniquely, appreciate what he has been through at Troy. They will listen to him and understand him. He, for his part, will achieve one of the greatest of all human desires: to be understood. At risk of making more enemies, let me point out that while we have heard plenty about 'toxic masculinity', there is also such a thing as 'toxic femininity'. This includes the idea that we will be saved and our problems resolved by compassion and empathy, all other judgments and rationales being put to one side. In recent days the meaning, depth and value of life in this country contracted at both ends. Not for any rational reason, but because if we did not we would be lacking understanding and kindness. But the calls are a mirage, and the promises a lie. We'll see who hits the rocks first.
Atlantic
4 days ago
- Climate
- Atlantic
This Wretched Heat Deserves a Name
Think of a famous storm—maybe Hurricane Katrina, gathering force over the warming Atlantic surface and pinwheeling toward the mouth of the Mississippi River to flood the great city of New Orleans. You may remember that Katrina killed more than 1,300 people. You may remember other, less deadly storms, such as Sandy, which killed dozens of people in New York City, and at least 147 overall. Now think of a famous heat wave. It's more difficult to do. And yet, heat waves can be fatal too. In 2023, scorching weather lingered for more than a month in Phoenix, Arizona, pushing temperatures to 119 degrees and killing an estimated 400 people in the county. Two years later, it's all but forgotten. A major storm is history. A major heat wave is the weather. This week's heat wave is menacing much of the entire country: Almost three-quarters of America's population—245 million people—has been subjected to temperatures of at least 90 degrees, and more than 30 million people are experiencing triple digits, according to one estimate. Yet few of us will remember this shared misery, unless we ourselves happen to be hospitalized because of it, or lose someone to heat stroke. Instead, these few days will blur together with all the other stretches of 'unseasonably warm weather' and 'record-setting temperatures' that now define summer in America. They will constitute just one more undifferentiated and unremembered moment from our extended slide into planetary catastrophe. Heat waves have always been anonymous disasters. They lack the flashy action of earthquakes, volcanoes, or plagues, and they don't show up much in ancient histories and myths. No single heat wave from human history has been assigned the narrative resonance of the Vesuvius eruption, or the mythic power of the storms that imperiled Odysseus. When heat waves do appear in stories, they tend to come in aggregate, after a series of them, occurring over months or years, have intensified droughts and famines. Our main cultural record of these collected runs of extreme heat consists of ruins left behind by civilizations that vanished after too many rainless years and failed harvests. What if heat waves could be called by name, like Katrina and Sandy? Maybe that would give them greater purchase on our cultural memory. Several organizations have recently argued that we ought to label heat waves as we do tropical storms. (This week's, if it were the first in some new system, might be called 'Heat Wave Aaron.') Supposedly, this would make heat loom larger in public discourse: More people would become aware of it and stay indoors. In 2022, a team working with the Mayor's office in Seville, Spain, piloted this idea. They assigned a local heat wave that had reached 110 degrees the name Zoe. According to a paper the team published last year, the 6 percent of surveyed residents who could recall the name without prompting also said they'd engaged in more heat-safety behaviors. No one knows whether that effect would have lasted through other heat waves, once the novelty of naming wore off for the Sevillians. Either way, the idea may be tricky to implement. In the Atlantic Ocean, fewer than 20 tropical storms, on average, are named each year. But the U.S. alone is subject to hundreds of annual heat waves, and they vary immensely in scale. Some are city-size and others—like this week's—drape themselves across the country like a thick and invisible down blanket. And unlike tropical storms, which are categorized according to wind speed, heat waves kick in at different temperatures in different places. (Seattle's heat wave might be Santa Fe's average summer day.) So which of these deserve a name tag, and which ones don't? Even if the naming idea catches on, these details will need working out. Alas, heat waves will likely remain anonymous for most of us for a good while longer, if not forever. But perhaps we should not be so ashamed of this. Our inability to record these sweltering spells in a more conspicuous way is shared by the natural world, which rarely shows the marks of an episode of hot weather in any lasting way. A storm or earthquake can reconfigure a landscape in a single moment of violence, leaving behind scars that can still be seen with the naked eye millennia later. In nature, as in culture, heat waves tend to show themselves after they have piled up into a larger warming trend. Only then are they visible in tree rings and ice cores, in coastlines that move inland, and in the mass extinctions that glare out from the fossil record—a thought to console yourself with as you wait for this week's heat to break.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
How Ralph got ripped! Why 28 Years Later star dropped his suave, suited-and-booted image to become a rugged heartthrob at 62
It's no secret that Ralph Fiennes is one of Britain's finest exports to Hollywood, with a string of impressive acting credits under his belt. But as the 62-year-old thespian wows critics with his 'vivid' and 'scene-stealing' performance in the long-anticipated zombie thriller sequel 28 Years Later, viewers have been wowed by something other than his acting skills. While Fiennes has long held heartthrob status among swooning fans, the actor is in the best shape of his life in his 60s - as viewers are left in awe of his 'ripped' physique in the movie. The jacked-up Hollywood star first left fans open-mouthed with his incredible body in 2024 Greek epic movie The Return, in which he played Homer's Odysseus. He has since revealed how he got into shape for the role in a diet and lifestyle overhaul that involved gruelling workouts, a near-total ban on alcohol and a low carb diet - but it's hard work that has surely paid off as Fiennes sheds the suave, quintessentially British image he once bore to become a rugged and ripped Adonis. As fans around the world are left open mouthed by the star's transformation, he and his esteemed personal trainer have revealed how he's managed to overhaul his physique - and the extreme lengths he has gone to. Fiennes's fitness regime has been born out of a close relationship with personal trainer Dan Avasilcai, who is based at the Muscleworks Gym in east London. The trainer has previously revealed how he helped Fiennes get into shape while bearing in mind his age and admitting a man in his 60s must train differently to a man in his 20s. 'Their muscles, bones and joints are different. I kept Ralph's workouts strict and safe,' he told The Times in April. Fiennes revealed to the newspaper that his fitness regime saw him drop from 80kg to 73kg after maintaining a rigorous schedule of exercise which included waking up at 5.30am to hit the gym and carrying out weight sessions before doing cardio. He cut out booze and bread and didn't snack on sweets, and even dehydrated himself to enhance the definition in his muscles. 'In the script it was clear - the nakedness. In The Odyssey, he throws off his rags, so it was clear that I had to show my body,' Fiennes said of the character that prompted his transformation. 'I wanted it to be believable as a man who's fought and sailed and swum and has not eaten very much.' Speaking to GQ this month, Avasilcai revealed how Fiennes is as dedicated to his fitness regime as he is to his roles, and sticks to the plans set out. Although it was The Return that prompted Fiennes's makeover, he worked with his trainer throughout filming for Papal drama Conclave which earnt him an Oscar nomination. Avasilcai said: 'He had a really good body under the robes. He was very keen to maintain a look. He would ask me 'Can you measure my body fat levels?' And we'd do it with callipers at the gym. At times I had to force him to eat a bit more, and explain to him that it isn't healthy to stay lean for so long.' After beginning his transformation in 2023, Fiennes dropped to around five per cent body fat within a few months of observing the new plan. In 28 Years Later, Fiennes plays Dr Ian Kelson, another weary character who has survived a zombie apocalypse - meaning he must look 'strong and agile', according to his trainer. He explained a typical day in Fiennes's fitness regime would be a 5.30am start to train for an hour, with a run at around 6pm. The rest of the day would be packed with high protein meals using ingredients like salmon, eggs and chicken breast, plus protein shakes and fruit. Avasilcai explained the high protein diet was necessary to ensure Fiennes, at 62, would have the energy to train and carry out long days on set without fear of injuring himself. Fiennes has previously revealed that, contrary to some fans' comments, he was never trying to achieve a 'bulked-up gym body' and instead wanted to look like 'a bit of old rope' in playing Odysseus. Speaking to the Guardian, The Return's director Umberto Pasolini said: 'At the beginning, I have to confess, I was slightly suspicious that there was so much protein going in and so much exercise that we would have a body that looked exercised instead of a body that was consumed, a lived body.' Regardless of roles, it seems the strict fitness regime is now a way of life for Fiennes, who has forged friendships via the gym. Chi Lewis-Parry, Fiennes's 28 Years Later co-star, has revealed how he and the veteran actor bonded over lifting weights in between filming. Speaking to Variety, the 6ft 8in star said he and Fiennes were 'best buds'. He added: 'We go to the gym and work out together a lot.' And as audiences and critics alike are wowed by Fiennes in Danny Boyle's long-awaited third instalment of the apocalyptic zombie thriller, the thespian's gym sessions are clearly grabbing viewers' attention. Fans who have seen the zombie film have taken to social media to express their awe at his physique. One person wrote: 'Ralph Fiennes is ripped!!!! Ripped!' Another joked: 'I was very attracted to Ralph Fiennes in 28 Years Later when I should not have been. I am beyond repair.' However, plenty of viewers thought it was perfectly reasonable to be attracted to the 'sexy' star in his ripped state. One viewer said: 'HELLO Ralph Fiennes???' Another simply said: 'How sexy is Ralph Fiennes.' Critics have lauded the esteemed actor's performance in the thriller as 'towering' in the role of Dr Kelson - but if viewers' verdicts are to be believed, Fiennes's bulging biceps will be just as enthralling.
