The Tom Hollands have come together for a search engine-confusing conversation about Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, and broken the internet.

British actor Tom Holland, playing Telemachus in the film, joined his fellow countryman, the historian and The Rest Is History co-host Tom Holland, to discuss the extraordinary scale of the adaptation, acting in IMAX, and balancing the movie’s historical reality with ancient myth.

The Rest Is History sit-down — which prompted a good few Spider-Man meme reactions, in reference to the actor’s upcoming MCU outing — also comes as the historian finds himself at the center of an unlikely culture-war clash with Elon Musk over Nolan’s film. Musk has launched something of a campaign against The Odyssey, riling up a herd of social media critics who call the movie’s diverse casting, such as Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, too “woke,” despite wide acknowledgement that Homer’s work is, of course, a piece of fiction.

The podcast host was invited to the star-spangled London premiere of the blockbuster, and would later take aim at the naysayers: “More praise for The Odyssey from people who — shockingly — have actually waited to see it before giving their opinion.” Musk responded, as he often does on the platform: “Tom Holland is such a cuck.” But the historian simply doubled down. “Very happy to say it again,” he wrote on X. “The Odyssey is an amazing film, and missing out on seeing it because you think it’s woke or whatever is cutting off your nose to spite your face. Your loss.”

Nolan himself has shrugged off the criticism, telling The Telegraph in a recent interview: “Comes with the territory… These conversations that happen before people see the film — they’re always irrelevant, because no one having them knows what the film actually is yet.”

One of the filmmaker’s lead actors told his namesake in the recorded conversation for The Rest Is History that he sees his and Anne Hathaway’s roles, as Telemachus and his mother, Penelope, as representing “the reality of the story.”

“Odysseus’ side of the story, Matt’s side of the story, represents the myth,” said Holland, who co-stars with his partner Zendaya. “And this humongous game of telephone has been played with this text. You know, it wasn’t written down for hundreds of years. There was a dark period in ancient Greece where no one would write anything down, so they would sing the song. So to me, what I love about the creative choices that Chris has made on that side of the story is that he’s kind of pushed the boundaries of what might be deemed historically accurate or reality, because that is the myth.”

The two also touched on the experience of filming in IMAX, to which Holland (again, the actor) told the author, broadcaster and translator: “IMAX is a very different beast. I would say that there’s a huge difference between acting on stage to acting on screen. And then there’s an even bigger difference between acting on screen and acting on IMAX. Because you just can’t hide anything in IMAX,” he explained, saying that the resolution is so good and “there’s no secrets.”

“There’s nowhere to hide. It really promotes a more subtle version of performance because it can very quickly become too much. So for me, I really enjoyed trying to find that biting point of where you were working perfectly with the camera.”

The Rest Is History, produced by Gary Lineker’s podcast behemoth Goalhanger, is one of the world’s biggest podcasts, attracting more than 25 million streams a month and recently crowned Show of the Year by Apple Podcasts.

Stephen Chow’s first film in seven years, Kung Fu Soccer, scored a mighty opening at the China box office this past weekend grossing $73.6M (RMB500.3M) in just two days (July 11-12), according to figures from Artisan Gateway. 

The spin-off of 2001 hit Shaolin Soccer follows an all-female soccer squad who add martial arts techniques to their game during a major tournament. The film has a 9.4 rating on the Maoyan ticketing platform, which is predicting a $369M (RMB2.5BN) final gross.

Chow directs but does not star in the film as he stepped away from acting following sci-fi comedy CJ7 in 2008. Kung Fu Soccer’s cast is headed by Zhang Xiaofei, Dilraba Dilmurat and Lay Zhang with guest appearances by Hong Kong star Carina Lau, Japan’s Takeru Satoh and U.S. comedian Jimmy O. Yang. 

Maoyan, a Beijing-based ticketing platform, investor and distributor, is handling the China distribution of the film, releasing it this month to mark the 25th anniversary of Shaolin Soccer and to capitalise on FIFA World Cup 2026 fever. Singapore-based Encore Films has international rights and is lining up territory-by-territory distribution.

Chow is one of Hong Kong’s most bankable filmmakers with hits over the decades including The God Of Cookery (1996), King Of Comedy (1999), Shaolin Soccer (2001) and Kung Fu Hustle (2004), with the latter film co-produced with Sony, although he hasn’t directed a film since The New King Of Comedy in 2019. 

Kung Fu Soccer’s success may help close the year-on-year decline in China’s 2026 box office, which was down around 40% in the first half, compared to the first half of 2025, a period that was bolstered by the record-breaking box office of Lunar New Year hit animation Nezha 2. 

While Kung Fu Soccer accounted for nearly three quarters of all ticket sales in China over the weekend, Minions & Monsters came in second in its second weekend with $8.1M, according to Artisan Gateway figures, while Light Chaser’s animated movie Three Kingdoms: The Beginning opened in third with $4.7M over three days. A24’s Backrooms, which opened June 26, came in fourth with $3.2M for a $21.8M cumulative gross.

The Netflix doc series about legendary football manager Jose Mourinho will launch globally on August 11.

In a teaser trailer released today, the same day he begins a second spell as Real Madrid coach, the Portuguese star seen in typically boastful action as he looks through his personal trophy room. He throws on a contented smile as he shows the camera crew a replica Premier League trophy, signed boots from Argentina legend Diego Maradona and Cristiano Ronaldo’s first professional shirt.

“I started winning in 2003, and my last title was 2022,” he says. “So it was 20 years winning. That why you want to tell my story. You don’t do a documentary with a guy that wins nothing.”

However, he’s keen to play down the ‘Special One’ moniker he gave himself in 2004 upon joining Chelsea from European champions FC Porto. “It’s not like I come here and I think I’m special,” he tells the camera crew. “‘The Special One’ is some special shit some guys in England found for me.”

At this point, the interviewer responds, “I love that you’re saying that whilst there’s a mural of yourself behind you,” as Mourinho turns in surprise.

Filmed over two years, Mourinho will explore the manager’s rise to success, which saw him win the Champions League with Porto before upending English football by winning two Premier Leagues with Chelsea and later joining Inter Milan in Italy, where he won a second Champions League.

His spell at Spain’s Real Madrid, where his Ronaldo-led team battled Lionel Messi’s Barcelona, saw him win a league title before rejoining Chelsea and achieving another title win. He also managed Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Roma to different degrees of success and then led Turkey Fenerbahçe and Portugal’s Benfice before today being reappointed Real Madrid manager.

The doc is part of Netflix’s Untold sports docs strand, which has already covered the liked of footballer-turned-Hollywood actor Vinnie Jones and Leicester City striker Jamie vardy.

It features interviews with football stars such as André Villas-Boas, Claude Makelele, Didier Drogba, Eden Hazard, Frank Lampard, Iker Casillas, Javier Zanetti, John Terry, Luis Figo, Marcelo, Marco Materazzi, Massimo Moratti, Petr Čech, Peter Kenyon, Ricardo Carvalho, Rui Faria, Sami Khedira, Samuel Eto’o, Alex Ferguson and Zlatan Ibrahimović.

Ventureland is the producer, with John Battsek (Beckham) and Miles Coleman (99) the producers. Joe Pearlman (Lewis Capaldi: How I’m Feeling Now, Bros: After The Screaming Stops) is the director.