Matt Damon Just Confirmed Tom Holland’s Unstoppable Star Power After The Odyssey Favor
Matt Damon says Tom Holland’s Hollywood pull is the real deal, recalling in an Empire Magazine chat about Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey how Holland phoned Sony boss Tom Rothman and secured a rare 70mm screening of Lawrence of Arabia.
Here is a very specific kind of Hollywood power move: Tom Holland wanted to watch Lawrence of Arabia on 70mm, so he made one phone call and it happened. That isn’t me speculating. Matt Damon says it’s exactly what went down while they were shooting Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey in Los Angeles.
The 70mm favor that says a lot
In a recent chat with Empire (as shared online), Damon said the cast was over at Sony when Holland rang up Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman and asked if they could run Rothman’s pristine 70mm print of Lawrence of Arabia. Rothman said yes, and they got a Sunday screening of the complete four-hour presentation. That is not a favor most actors get on a weekend, and it tells you how much stock Sony has in their Spider-Man.
Why Rothman picks up when Holland calls
Rothman has been very publicly in Holland’s corner for years, often framing him as the ideal big-screen Peter Parker for this era. In one IGN interview, he said Holland’s take is the one audiences click with the most, and offered this snapshot of what makes it work:
"This is it. This is that character in all of its youthful complications and 'I have to save the world and get my chemistry homework done'."
Also, let’s be blunt: Holland’s Spider-Man movies have made Sony a mountain of money. Here’s the scoreboard:
- Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) — $880 million worldwide
- Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) — $1.1 billion worldwide
- Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) — $1.9 billion worldwide
When you are that reliable at the box office, getting a rare 70mm screening cleared with one call isn’t shocking. It’s brand management.
So, about Nolan’s The Odyssey
The project Damon was talking about is Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, due in theaters July 17, 2026. The cast is stacked: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Jon Bernthal, Anne Hathaway, and Benny Safdie. Holland isn’t playing a quippy superhero here; he’s Telemachus, son of Odysseus, in Nolan’s spin on Homer’s epic.
Holland has been unusually effusive about this one. Speaking to France24, he didn’t hedge:
"The script is the best script I’ve ever read."
He also called Nolan a real collaborator — someone who knows exactly what he wants but still invites ideas. And in GQ Sports, Holland described the shoot as the job of a lifetime, saying it felt different in the best way and that watching Nolan and producer Emma Thomas work up close was energizing. The gist: he thinks the finished film won’t look or feel like anything we’ve seen before.
Between Damon’s story about the 70mm favor and the way everyone involved keeps talking about The Odyssey, it sounds like Holland is using his Spider-power in all the right ways — and Nolan’s next epic is quietly building a lot of confidence behind the scenes.