Renowned British director Christopher Nolan has unveiled the first look at Cillian Murphy taking on the lead role in Oppenheimer, a biopic of American atomic bomb scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer. 

Adapting the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph And Tragedy Of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, Nolan is set to tell the story of one of the founding fathers of atomic weaponry during the Second World War and the internal strife that ignited within him when their deadly power was put to use – “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”, he famously said.

Murphy, a veteran of Nolan’s work having previously starred in Inception (2010), The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and Dunkirk (2017), looks every inch the part in a steely black and white shot. Emily Blunt stars alongside Murphy as Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty, while other names to note on the call sheet include Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr., Dane DeHaan and Matt Damon – we could keep going but the list really doesn’t end.

The Universal picture is currently shooting in New Mexico and set for release on 21st July next year.