After watching Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey in a sold-out IMAX theater, my husband and I were heading for the exit when we were attacked by smiling employees brandishing free rolled-up posters. Raising our shields, we broke through their phalanx, leaped aboard our vessel moored in the parking lot, and sailed homeward with only a few posters glancing off the moonroof.

Such attacks are rare, because posters can usually be sold for more money than they cost to make. But Nolan, the moviemaker of the summer, is also the movie marketer of the summer. In addition to getting Universal Studios to spend $250 million producing The Odyssey, he persuaded them to spend $125 million promoting it—and not just by giving away posters. To judge by his innumerable interviews, Nolan has an Odyssean gift for making people see the world the way he wants them to.

In July Nolan was interviewed by Tom Shone, a journalist who has idolized him for longer than it takes Odysseus to get home. When Shone gushed that Nolan has a “new dog, a chocolate lab named Charlie,” Nolan gushed back that The Odyssey is “the ultimate dog movie,” adding, “I’m not being glib…it really is a very important part of that story.” This was not just glib, it was Hollywood glib. The dog in question is Argos, who despite being old and dying is the first to recognize