Musk vows AI Odyssey after taking aim at Nolan’s hit film

Elon Musk has put a date on his own trip to Ithaca: before the end of 2026, he says, Grok Imagine will produce a full-length version of The Odyssey.

Musk made the pledge Tuesday night on X, the social media platform he owns, writing that the AI film would be “historically accurate and true to the art of Homer.” Rolling Stone reported that the post was pinned to the top of Musk’s profile as of Wednesday afternoon.

The declaration lands while Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is fresh in theaters. Rolling Stone reported that Nolan’s film broke box office records in its opening days, despite right-wing online anger around the project.

Musk has been one of the loudest critics. Months earlier, after reports that Nolan had cast Lupita Nyong’o and Elliot Page in minor roles, Musk accused the filmmaker of “pissing on Homer’s grave,” according to Rolling Stone.

Musk floats a Gibson-sized budget

Musk also replied to another X user suggesting a different version of the Homeric epic, according to Rolling Stone. In that exchange, Musk indicated he was “down” to give Mel Gibson $100 million to make an adaptation with historically accurate ships, armor, weapons and casting, with dialogue taken from the original poem and performed in Homeric Greek.

Rolling Stone noted that Nolan’s film had a reported production budget of $250 million.

Musk’s AI pitch centered on Grok Imagine, the media-generation tool tied to his Grok chatbot. He did not lay out a production plan, release date, cast, distribution partner or whether the proposed film would have human writers, actors or artists involved.

A Grok-built teaser enters the chat

Musk also shared a three-minute sample made by another X user, Heavy Pulp, according to Rolling Stone. The clip, posted on X, was described by Heavy Pulp as a dialogue scene from Homer’s Odyssey built with Grok Imagine.

Rolling Stone reported that the sample shows a scene involving Odysseus and the nymph Calypso. The outlet also described other visual flourishes in the clip, including Odysseus wearing earplugs, sirens dressed in yellow, Hermes shown with large wings and characters delivering stiff dialogue.

The fight over The Odyssey has now moved beyond casting gripes and into a bigger culture-war lane: whether an ancient poem should be remade by a prestige filmmaker, rebuilt through AI or handed to another director with a large check attached.

For now, the only confirmed project in wide view is Nolan’s version, which Rolling Stone reported is already pulling major numbers at the box office. Musk’s promised Grok Imagine movie remains, at this stage, an X post with a deadline.

This story draws on original reporting from Rolling Stone.