The cast of Christopher Nolan’s upcoming epic, The Odyssey , appears to be fully immersing themselves in their work, none more than Tom Holland. Holland, who played Telemachus alongside Matt Damon’s Odysseus, went to extraordinary lengths to secure a screening of a cinematic classic for the casting during production.Matt Damon revealed this behind-the-scenes tidbit in the latest issue of Empire magazine. “We were at Sony, and Tom Rothman has one of the pristine 70-mil prints of that movie,” Damon explained to the outlet. He specified that Holland personally called the studio head to arrange the special viewing. “And Tom Holland, because he’s Spider-Man and he’s everybody’s favorite at that studio, called Rothman and he arranged for us to screen it on a Sunday, the full four hours,” Damon said, referencing David Lean’s 1962 masterpiece, Lawrence of Arabia . The star-studded film adaptation of Homer’s epic poem boasts a massive ensemble cast that includes Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita N’yongo, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie, John Leguizamo, Elliot Page, and Mia Goth, among many others.In the Empire special, Nolan also spoke about the monumental task of adapting Homer’s foundational epic. “Emma [Thomas, producer and Nolan’s wife] said it best when we first announced the project: it’s foundational,” the filmmaker explained. “There’s a bit of everything in it. I mean, it truly contains all stories.” Nolan elaborates on his cinematic motivation: “As a filmmaker, you’re looking for gaps in cinematic culture, things that haven’t been done before.” He concluded: “And what I saw is that all of this great mythological cinematic work that I had grown up with – Ray Harryhausen movies and other things – I’d never seen that done with the sort of weight and credibility that an A-budget and a big Hollywood, IMAX production could do.”