The Odyssey

0:00Blank Jack with Griffin and David Blank Jack with Griffin and David Don't know what to say or to expect All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Jack Excuse me I am but a simple beggar

0:30Is this the kingdom of the Czech Republic? I've heard that your co-host Has been journeying on an odyssey across Europe And there is an opening to co-host the podcast And once again I'm just a simple beggar And nothing more Unsheaf I draw a bit into my bit bow And then here's my bit bow Your joke arrow Defy the pods

1:02Oh that was defy the pods Defy the pods That's funny Defy the pods cast Wow That was so great That was really good Yay And you have authentic facial hair much like Matt Damon I do I have How would I describe this? I'm describing it as you look like Seth Bullock in Deadly Yes I do I've been saying conquistador but you're right I feel a little Don Cajote It's a little Maybe that's because I've been in Spain Well so we should explain for the listeners Basically Griffin Yeah

1:32He's always been rocking a mustache But now he's got a pretty full soul patch He's got the patch I'll say this So the mustache has become more and more of an emphasis in how I conduct my face I'm a fellow stash man Of course We stash it up We look great We're secret stashers Sure Thank you I'm filming a TV show I'm working on a TV show Which I should I'm gonna say Sometimes I think people should make And I'm gonna say Griffin Humblebrag Thank you This TV show is very well run

2:03But I am coming in late into a season And there's a big wall in the hair and makeup trailer Of like the 70 speaking roles in this season Yes And I'm introduced like 60 out of 70 There you go And they're like You need to have a facial hair design That is different than what anyone else has So it's like so many of the things have been claimed And variations And I came in just sort of unshaved I hadn't shaved anything in like a month or two Going into this And they were like We're keeping the mustache And we're emphasizing the flavor saver

2:36Wow There you go So even right now you're seeing me I'm a couple days off from filming The rest of my face has been squeaky clean I got a little stubble back now But I've been squeaky clean Outside of mustache and flavor saver He's squeaky And you're right I look exactly like Matt Damon in the Odyssey Well I was going to ask you Like how long of a beard can you grow? Oh like if allowed Matt Damon's beard The length of it is really impressive I mean if you can grow facial hair

3:06You can grow a long beard You can It's about commitment It's about time My problem is It might be years If I have too much beard I start like picking at it As like a nervous tip Exactly right And then I start like pulling at it And futzing with it So then I usually don't let it get past a certain point I heard that Matt Damon grew for a year He said a year He said he had a beard for a year I guess is how he put it It's a full looking beard Yes Because in Greek antiquity They didn't have fake beards I guess So no one was like No fake beards

3:36Well and we know that this is a movie That is 100% historically accurate Exactly And that's why no one is angry about it Exactly Wait people are already angry about it? Oh don't worry about them Ben Don't worry about those guys We're here to celebrate It's guys? You're saying it's angry guys? What if it was all girls? Ben if I told you that one Multi multi multi billionaire Was angry about this movie Who would you guess it was? One very online Well let me think Are they normal though?

4:07The most normal Okay then Elon Musk Perfect sense of humor Yes exactly Yeah okay Okay What's this podcast called? This is called The Podacy It's called Blink Check with Griffin and David But today we're going on a podacy We are going on a podacy to Ithaca and I guess Troy and A bunch of other unnamed islands with scary stuff on them Upstate New York City Yeah Yeah a bunch of other Right That's so true Have you guys been to Ithaca?

4:38Of course my mother is a Cornell alum The thing that's really scary about Ithaca as far as walking around is the gorges and you have to go over these bridges and you just look down and it's just It's quite hefty It's just It's quite a drop I visited Cornell and Ithaca on like a little college tour and the one thing that everyone talked about was like oh yeah lots of people just like fling themselves off into the gorgeous My cousin went to Ithaca College and just casually mentioned like yeah people just will commit suicide

5:09Cause it's too gorgeous It's very small and look at the island like god everyone's fighting over this that big Yeah but like you know It looks like it has some nice beaches It's home I know it's home it's home but you know Pattinson's coming all the way out just to try and get this little like why not this island look at this island this island's huge Cephalonia right next door I don't know maybe there are fucking monsters on it The thing about Ithaca is that there are no monsters on there There are just There are just like There's yeah there's men There's petty men

5:40Men are the monsters They're the real monsters But you don't have like giant Bill Irwin like butt naked with one eye eating you See my read on it was just the smaller island is maybe more strategic It may be It's just maybe safer I think easier to govern too It's just kind of like hey you know got some sheep I want to front load this The Cyclops sequence in the movie is the highlight of the film for me Interesting I would not say that's true for me but it makes sense that it is for you because It have big monster which you do love a big monster

6:12I love big monster Right I also love Bill Irwin We love Bill Irwin It genuinely was one of the first times in a long time that I watched a sequence in a movie and went I have no idea how the fuck they did this I had the same I certainly obviously I was trying to give myself over to the movie but I was constantly kind of like I guess there's some forced perspective stuff but I'm not totally sure how they pulled this off But then it's that great movie magic thing where you watch one shot and you go okay I think I figured out the next shot completely breaks whatever your sense was and part of it is that he's he's pulling things back to basic so much

6:48Yeah That any over complicated process that you would just assume or hand wave away you're ruling out Yeah I don't know it's uh it was very cool when he pick up guy and eat him Yeah that was scary I didn't I got scared Step on him with foot And step on him with foot And you know what's Squeeze him And squeeze him I know You know what's so cool about the Odyssey is I wouldn't be surprised if all of us had a different favorite section of the movie Okay let's go around let's do this let's go around the horn

7:20I think I think Marie and I have the same favorite section though Well I have two favorite sections Oh I know My favorite section is certainly Cersei and the pigs Yeah Cersei was a big standout for me but I also was really really moved by the flashback to Odysseus' experience of carnage in Troy Oh sure That was very yes I was very impressed by the narrative thing he was doing in the third act certainly yes that is fair

7:54Ben Okay I'm gonna attempt to say the name of these people and I'm sure I'm gonna butcher it The last Dragonians The big guys The big fucking crazy knights You like a big guy Oh my god it was so sick Yeah Yes And that was crazy when it was like who's that man and then it turns around and it's a giant kid Sure And he's laughing Well that was great It's weird that Ben liked the sequence with the taunting child and the giant brute army

8:26And I liked the sequence with the emotionally wounded monster Just in a fetal position in a cave Played by one of America's finest clowns I didn't know it was Bill Irwin until after the fact Yeah I had to tell you It's such a good performance Very cool This is Blank Check with Griffin and David It's a podcast about filmographies Directors who have massive success early on in their careers Such as making a Bartman movie And are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want Those checks have not run out for one Christopher Nolan

8:58They keep getting bigger On an uninterrupted run of checks being handed to him for now 21 years Yeah Yes Yeah What are we counting as the Batman Begins right? That was 21 years ago? Yeah it was 2005 That's what's crazy Oh my god I was but 19 maybe 20 years old yeah You could say that Batman Begins was the guarantor But I think the circumstances around Batman were so weird at that point in time That they basically gave him a blank check because they were like we got no better ideas

9:30But we already said this with him He constantly has guarantors He said about this movie like this is my biggest budget movie ever And it's because Oppenheimer did so well Right Like it's like it keeps But you don't get to make a movie like Oppenheimer at Oppenheimer's budget Without that being a bit of a blank check as well Of course So it's like Correct I have no idea what he does from here He can do whatever he wants Either I think he has to go smaller And I think he's even sort of talking about that now But we covered him many years ago

10:01His success has only grown since we covered him At the time he already was arguably the filmmaker of his generation And with every success of film he's only become more and more important And now he's making what feels like the biggest movie you could possibly imagine Yeah sure I mean we had this conversation after Oppenheimer All of us We were just like The fuck does he do next? When Oppenheimer Which on paper was a one for me Makes nearly a billion dollars And wins every Oscar Yeah

10:32And performs as high as most of his films have ever achieved Then what is there even left for this guy to cash in? And there were all the rumors that he was doing Blue Thunder That's made up Is that the helicopter cop movie? Those are cold word things Oh is he doing a horror movie? Is he doing a this? He has said he wants to figure out a horror movie Which is interesting But do you remember we were all in the office together I can't remember what episode we had just recorded or were about to record

11:03And I went holy shit And I showed you there was a tweet And it was Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey Filmed entirely in IMAX Coming summer 2026 Right It was just all at once Suddenly the announcement was out there We had known the cast The cast had been growing Had been pinned to the board But we didn't know what it was And then we just went holy shit Of course he had to do this It was either The Odyssey or the Bible It was the only move for him to do next As he's pointed out

11:34There's no Hollywood version of The Odyssey ever That's what's wild And that's why it had to be this No one had ever tried this Obviously there's There were a couple sort of Italian versions Well there was the Armando Sante That's a TV movie I tried watching that on YouTube last night I turned it off after 30 seconds Do you want to see what the Cyclops looks like in it? Yes Someone posted it to my work slack Oh You know he looks kind of good He looks like a big baby Let me see this guy I like this I like this guy a lot

12:04He looks pretty good That's some Griffin shit right there It's a little bit dinosaurs vibe You know Yeah Little early Holland there Did the Jim Henson Creature Shop work on this at all? I mean One assumes right? I mean let's find out They did a lot of those TV movies I was going to say That was their That was how they kept the lights on right? Exactly There's like the Ted Danson Gulliver's Travels Around that time Oh that was huge Remember the Ted Danson Gulliver's Travels? Well he was huge Remember how big he was? He was big He was And you know what Griffin? And the Williputians were small I can confirm for you

12:34That the creature effects for this miniseries Were provided by Jim Henson's Creature Shop They had a talking animatronic pig roasting on a spit That's cool Love that They had a rod puppet sea slug sea monster And they had you know Well maybe I'll try I'll give it another shot But I'll just fast forward to all the cool To the puppet stuff Puppet stuff Last night for research I was like I want to watch some stuff To like get me in the Odyssey mood again Because we saw the movie what like three days ago So I watched the episode of Arthur

13:08Where DW retells the Odyssey Yes And I watched the episode of Wishbone I was going to say Wishbone must have spun that tale But it's very interesting Because okay In the Arthur version with DW There's none of the like What's happening back at Ithaca stuff It's just DW on a boat Encountering monsters Uh sure And then in the Wishbone version Barely any of the monsters It's all back at Ithaca I really hope Christopher Nolan's listening right now

13:40As we talk about this Um I just think it's I think it's crazy that Children's media Used to do this shit It's the first story Well yeah Well they You know they still do it I'm sure Gabby's Dollhouse Has done an Odyssey episode Because Gabby's Dollhouse Has done an Odyssey episode She found a new room in her dollhouse I'm not sure I'm not sure if she's gotten there yet I just have to read this Review for the 1997 miniseries That's cited on Wikipedia Because it's so Please It's such a good burn Uh by Richard Nilsson Of the Arizona Republic Okay Even though the made for TV movie Is only four hours long

14:10I wasted a fifth hour Stewing over how god awful it was That's pretty good He's saying this is This shit was so bad It ate into further time in my life It ruined an additional hour of my life That miniseries had its own controversy at the time Because they cast Baby Sinclair To play Helen of Troy Because they had him Kicking around the creature shop And people got really upset And that's And that's a Muppets reference Or is that Not the mama That's a dinosaur I'm not the mama I didn't know his name was Baby Sinclair You didn't know his name was Baby Sinclair I think he's handsome

14:41But people thought he didn't have a face That would launch a thousand trips That was the argument I think he's handsome He's iconic I mean I don't know if I would call him handsome But like He's the moment Everyone knows the baby He is literally the moment You think he's currently the moment Right now? I think Baby Sinclair has never been more relevant As proven by how quickly All three of you understood the joke I was making I didn't like the joke I just forgot that they're called the Sinclairs Why are they called the Sinclairs? Because they're just a normal family But they should have had like a pun name

15:13I agree You know? Wait Isn't there like a Sinclair oil Or like a gas station called Sinclair With a dinosaur on it? Oh I think you're right That sounds a little I think you're right That sounds like a stretch though No See look Sinclair Oil Corporation Fossil fuel Yeah the name is a reference Sinclair Okay This is funny This is really good It's a really good show I am so smart That's too sophisticated Okay Let's talk about The Odyssey The Odyssey and our screening experiences Yes So Okay great We have three different screening experiences Three different experiences

15:44Three different experiences Cities Three different major cities Three cities Wow Much like the Odyssey the movie This is an episode that spans multiple countries Multiple cities Multiple formats Multiple formats Because yes Okay so Alright well Maria and I saw it At the AMC IMAX Lincoln Square 70mm IMAX 70mm IMAX Where I guess you can't get like a seat At like the 3am screenings in August right now Yes Like it's like sold out for the rest of time

16:15We are checking our privilege It was I feel enormously blessed To have had the opportunity To not only see this film In the You know The director Preferred format Big old theater But also In the best seat in the house Of course We had my favorite seats In the back of the house Near the secret bathroom Yes Which I really This is on the IMAX screen Yes On the IMAX screen Oh yeah Okay But it was 70 And you know The film Like the picture There were little spots And pops

16:46And little guy Oh yeah It was very cool I like the texture Exactly I like the imperfections Now Ben Ben where did you see this film? I was in Chicago The Windy City Visiting And I went to An AMC theater In downtown Chicago And saw this film In 70mm And at that theater There's no ketchup And it's all It's like a Giardiniera Right And a big pickle In your popcorn He's talking about hot dogs I'm doing a Chicago bit

17:17Yeah And there was celery salt You saw inside the bean Right I did And the perspective Was a little weird Right Right It was a little The picture was a little Funky What's the deep dish version Of a movie theater? Is it that the chairs Are behind the screen? It's like the whole theater Is kind of like A conversation pit Yeah But it just goes way down That's pretty funny Or it's maybe Maybe it's like Ben's original pitch Of like the underwater Upside down movie theater Right Right That would be good Especially for that Anyway Okay so yeah You were in Chicago

17:47Chicago And so you went to A press screening there Yes And unfortunately IMAX not available They don't have An IMAX in Chicago I just learned this today I am shocked That's pretty wild Yeah For such a major market Or I guess If they do have one They don't do Press screenings there I don't really know Do you know What format you saw Ben? Was it 35? Was it a digital? You saw it in 70? Okay so you saw it In a gentleman's 70 A gentleman's 70 Yes Obviously Most people around this country Will not be able to see the film In like fancy fancy IMAX

18:19Obviously there's You know Digital IMAX out there And there's 70 out there There's a lot of formats I'm going to see it on 35 On Saturday Where? Nighthawk Wow Crazy I saw I think the number is There's somewhere between 40 and 50 screens On the planet That show it in the kind of Complete preferred Nolan format Now I have been in Spain Filming Griffin's in Spain! In the entire country of Spain There are only two IMAX screens Both of which are digital

18:49Wow I had purchased tickets for one of them At midnight So I was going to see this movie At midnight on Thursday Record with you guys the next day And then my buddy Let's say friend of the podcast He came through in a major way here Sam Clements Who works for the Picturehouse chain In the UK The great movie theater chain I was texting with him And he said I might be able to get you Into the press event Which was at the BFI South Bank IMAX The big fancy theater in Waterloo Very large One of the biggest IMAX screens

19:19Yeah And he pulled off a miracle His buddy David At organic publicity Got me in I had a handful of days off From filming I in fact have more than A handful of days off From filming Yeah it seems like you're barely Are you doing any work? A little bit A little bit I've been doing a lot of siestaing But a little bit of work A little touch of work On the side A kind of pinchos amount of work Just small tapas work How many other phrases Can I appropriate here? But I got to see it At the South Bank

19:49In 70 IMAX Which was quite a treat It is It's a fucking big ass movie It really is And this is Nolan's been working on this project For a decade Of how much more More than a decade Almost 20 years now Because I guess it starts with Dark Knight 18 years ago Of how much IMAX Can I get into A commercial release Film And this is the first movie Where he's gotten it up to 100% Right? Every single shot in this movie I gotta say

20:19This movie's epic It is quite epic Pretty epic And I think Regardless of what format You see it in The actual fidelity Of the image That has been captured Is pretty fucking astonishing Yeah David Ehrlich Run of the Pod Friend of my life Was at the same screening As us Seeing the movie For the second time He saw it in IMAX For the first time And then for the second Screening He saw it in 70 And he said He preferred it In 70 Which we were like Interesting

20:50We think you're just Making stuff up You know The first screening Of a movie like this Where it's all hyped You're so like You know Buzzed up watching it And it's hard to concentrate Even You know The second screening You can focus more At what he's doing Maybe that was part of it And if he's listening Right now He should throw a wallet At himself Yeah he should actually Yeah that's right I'll say this We've all seen it one time We've been fortunate enough To see it one time Before release In order to get this Episode out quickly I don't think I had Any like adjustment To how high

21:21My expectations were Or the hype I felt pretty settled Into meeting the movie Where it was at It does feel like A lot of movie To absorb on one viewing Yes Like I feel like I'm struggling Even two days later Wow To get my head around Some of it I think the movie's excellent Not me I'm strong as hell Strong You're strong as hell Yeah You feel like you got A complete take He was saying Before we started taping Like he's got the names Locked down Yeah Is that the names? I was saying Yeah the names Kamesh Patel For example Okay And he was like Don't worry about it We're just gonna say

21:52The actors names And I was like Okay John Leguizamo Can I say He's my MVP In this movie Of course he is Griffin Of course he's your MVP He's so good He's the Krumholz Of the movie I personally And I don't know Maybe David You'll agree with me on this I think Samantha Morton Is the like Standout performance I mean I really think That everyone in this movie Is very well cast And used But it was so nice To see people Like Morton And Leguizamo Who Nolan's never

22:23Worked with before Where Nolan clearly Immediately was like That is the person I don't need to identify Like whatever A bigger star here Or you know Like a glitzy Like he matched The actor so perfectly Leguizamo In the Odyssey You're like That what? Like that doesn't Automate And then you see it And you're like I understand this completely Morton makes total sense That you know That was not I think I think they're The two MVPs Morton You know We've talked about Morton a lot this year

22:53And on the Morvyn Caller episode We were talking about How much In the late 90s And the early 2000s She was seen as like One of definitively The great actresses Of her generation And she's receded A little bit And this just feels like Nolan wanting to Remind everyone How good she is And how powerful she is Leguizamo I don't feel like I've ever seen him Used like this before It's interesting I was trying to think about this Yeah Unlocking new chambers for me Because he's like Kind of the heart Of the movie He's like In a way The emotional spine

23:24Of the thing Who all the other characters Are filtered through I for some reason Kept thinking about John Wick Because Odyssey does have A John Wick vibe of like He's coming back And he's mad Which I feel like Maybe John Wick Has an Odyssey vibe Of course Absolutely Everything has Calling him and being like Do you still have my car Yeah Right I mean it was a little bit That where it's like Leguizamo's just playing The guy where it's like Everyone agrees That this guy Is reliable and wise Yes As hell Like that is what We turned

23:54Because I'm looking at Leguizamo's I mean he works Like Leguizamo's always working Yeah But like What's the last time He was in It might be John Wick Like that he was in something Where I was like Oh it's so What a great use of him Like I didn't see Bob Trevino likes it I didn't either Which everyone said He was really excellent in I should see that He's the lead of that right He's Bob Trevino It's him and Barbie Ferreira Yeah And Barbie Ferreira By the way She's having a hell of a year She is I'm loving Barbie Ferreira

24:24No Everyone knows Mylon Mylon is great Our buddy Chandler Levick's Great film That movie is so good Chandler It's so good Yes Are you listening to Chandler I liked your movie The Canadian film explosion Of 2026 Is to me the big story That's so true Yes Canada's everywhere right now Let's see He's in the new Exorcist Leguizamo Okay I bet you he plays Like a priest who's like I don't like the looks of this We gotta get this game now I bet you're right That sounds very good I can see it I bet he talks out of

24:54The center of his mouth Exclusively Right down the center Of his mouth Those front teeth Getting a lot of exposure Is he like You know Has he done Like Should we throw him Like a Glitzy miniseries So he can grab an Emmy Or something He was in an Apple TV series Called Smoke Which wasn't very good But He was in it He was in it It feels like he's primed though That's a good point David I feel like we got Leguizamo In like third position On an FX series

25:26He's like winning every award Yeah Like Who doesn't Who's not happy to see Legs Johnny Legs Well King Koopa Well that's true Although actually I don't really know That King Koopa Registered Luigi As a threat Did he I mean I can't really remember You know I haven't watched that film In a little while Do they do battle even Like I don't really If King Koopa Doesn't register Luigi As a threat I would say That's a narrative shortcoming I would say If King Koopa Does not recognize One of the two Mario Brothers As a threat At any point

25:56That movie might have Some script issues Um I do think I've seen the Super Mario Brothers Movie several times In my life I think One could accuse it Of having script issues I think that's fair I think everyone Would bear that accusation With grace This is the first time Hearing this Oh my god What do I say here Put my finger up Behind my ear Um So here we are We saw the Odyssey So Griff You saw it at the BFI Was that nice That's a lovely theater I haven't been there In a long time But it's very cool It's a big old circle It's It's in a circle You gotta go A little bit underground

26:27In a tunnel Cool Yeah cause it's in like In the middle of a Of a giant roundabout Correct It's like there's Cars going around It's in the middle of like a Like a traffic circle Yeah Yes and so you gotta Take an underpass To go into the secret chamber Cool That's great See any pals there? Any of our Brit pals? Honey Ross Friend of the podcast Okay Uh And Sam Sam Clements was there with me I don't think I saw anyone else Fair enough But I was I was immediately Taken aback by And I think I wasn't Reading early responses

26:57You Guys Had gone With Marika Brownlee Ben was seeing At the same time That I was Vaguely I had gotten General thumbs up From people I knew But I wasn't reading Anyone's deeper thoughts And I was Taken aback Immediately Cause I was Sam Sam Helped me get into the screen But he had already seen the movie And there was a whole Kerfuffle With me being his Plus one Where they wouldn't let me in Without him So he said I'll come And I'll sit through the first

27:27Like 30 minutes again And then I'll leave And I said Is like the opening Particularly good? I was wondering Like does it have One of these classic Nolan Sort of James Bond style Dark Knight