Emily Blunt in talks to join Cillian Murphy in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer

Christopher Nolan's new project Oppenheimer sounds more and more intriguing with each passing day. The Dark Knight, Inception and Tenet helmer is planning a new biopic about the inventor of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, who famously repeated the Hindu scripture: "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

Nolan's regular collaborator Cillian Murphy, with whom he has worked on the Batman movies, Inception and Dunkirk, is set to play Oppenheimer himself. And it's now reported that Murphy's A Quiet Place: Part II star, Emily Blunt, is in talks to star in the film.

Deadline indicates that Blunt is close to signing a deal for the drama, which is simply called Oppenheimer. The film will explore Oppenheimer's involvement in the creation of atomic energy, his disquiet over his creation and his eventual anti-nuclear stance. It will be adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph And Tragedy Of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin.

Nolan will write and direct, while his creative partner and wife, Emma Thomas, will produce with Charles Roven of Atlas Entertainment. This will be the first Nolan movie since 2002's Insomnia not to be distributed by Warner Bros; following the controversy surrounding Tenet's release, Nolan split with the studio and has now pitched up at Universal. They describe the film as an "epic thriller that thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it".

Oppenheimer is set for release on 21st July 2023.