Ten years ago, Cillian Murphy was already courted to play Oppenheimer

The Irish actor was on the list of potential actors for the Manhattan series.

After five collaborations with Cillian Murphy Christopher Nolan offered the actor his first headlining role with Oppenheimer . Result: putting on the physicist’s costume turns out to be a total success for the actor, in view of the critics praising his magnetic interpretation from start to finish.

No doubt: he was the right man for the director ofInception And Dunkirk to slip into the shoes of the creator of the atomic bomb (the 173 million dollars generated at the worldwide box office can attest to this). And to tell the truth, Nolan is not the first to have thought of the actor of Peaky Blinders for a project around the nuclear race. Almost ten years ago, two authors already had his name in mind.

In 2014, Sam Shaw And Lila Byock looked at the Trinity test, the test that Oppenheimer and his teams carried out on July 16, 1945 in the New Mexico desert. They then created the series manhattan, for WGN America. In the scenery of Los Alamos, this small village built especially for the invention of the bomb, the program followed temporarily settled families. “Brilliant but flawed scientists… attempt to co-exist in a world where secrets and lies creep into every aspect of their lives,” explains the synopsis.

“When we cast for the role of Oppenheimer, we had several names in mind”explained Lila Byock to Vanity Fair. “We wanted the actor who would play Oppenheimer to have both a certain charisma, a presence on stage, but he also had to feel alien in a certain way. Cillian Murphy was on our list”added Sam Shaw.

Eventually, the writers will choose Daniel London (Old day, Doctor Patch) for the character of Robert Oppenheimer. The latter has a secondary role, and only appears in five episodes. The main role is played by John Benjamin Hickey, in the skin of Frank Tyler.

manhattan not meeting the expected success, the series was canceled after two seasons. “There is still the bitter taste of not having been able to tell this story in all its magnitude as we hoped”concluded Sam Shaw.

Barbenheimer is also wreaking havoc at the French box office