Francesca Rudkin: Historical accuracy isn't the point of The Odyssey

Author: Francesca Rudkin,
Publish Date: Sun, 26 Jul 2026, 10:14am

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Elon Musk claims his AI platform Grok will create a feature-length version of The Odyssey by year-end. Photo / Getty Images

Elon Musk has many talents. Building rockets. Selling electric cars. Turning a social media platform into a daily talking point.

Now he wants to 'fix' Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey because he disagrees with Nolan’s diverse casting choices and creative interpretation in the film’s production design. Turns out the owner of a social media site that is, shall we charitably say, light on content moderation and unconcerned with truthfulness, is concerned this piece of entertainment isn’t historically accurate.

Musk has announced he will use his own AI, Grok Imagine, to generate a full-length version of The Odyssey that is “historically accurate and true to the art of Homer.”

It seems he’s a bit peeved his criticisms of Nolan’s film didn’t stop people flocking to see it. Instead, The Odyssey has been a smash hit with audiences. It took a massive $264 million at the global box office in its opening weekend, has had rave reviews and there’s heaps of Oscar buzz.

It turns out audiences are pretty relaxed about historical accuracy. This is Homer we're talking about after all, and a poem that's possibly 2,800 years old. It was a story passed down orally for centuries before it was written down. Historical accuracy isn't exactly the point.

Musk's frustration seems to come from his belief that AI could recreate the world as it really was. Every helmet, every ship, every piece of armour, exactly right. And that would be really clever.

But is that why people buy a movie ticket? Of course not.

People don't hand over their hard earned cash hoping someone has finally perfected the precise Bronze Age stitching pattern on a tunic. They go because Christopher Nolan makes films that make them feel something. Awe. Tension. Wonder. Curiosity.

Nolan’s box office record isn't built on historical precision. It's built on the power of imagination.

Whether it's Oppenheimer, Dunkirk, Interstellar or Inception, people trust him to tell a story in a way nobody else can. That's what cinema is.

Could AI become a brilliant filmmaking tool? Absolutely. It can speed up visual effects, restore old footage, help with editing, even create incredible reference material. The industry will be better for it.

But tools don't replace taste. They don't replace instinct.

And tools certainly don't replace the thousands of human decisions - from the director, actors, cinematographer, composer and editor - which somehow combine into an onscreen moment that gives you goosebumps.

If an AI version of The Odyssey arrives one day and every historical detail is flawless, I wish it the best. But I'd rather spend three hours watching Christopher Nolan's imperfect, ambitious, deeply human interpretation.

Stories survive for thousands of years not because they're accurate. They survive because people keep finding new ways to tell them.

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