The complete screenplay of Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer centers on the life of the "father of the atomic bomb." Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, the film stars Cillian Murphy as the man who led the effort, in the midst of a world war, to unleash the power of the atom. Christopher Nolan has fashioned a story of discovery bathed in the light of a thousand suns – but one that is darkened by government surveillance and the travesty of a trial to which Oppenheimer was subjected. In his introduction to the screenplay, Kai Bird, co-author of American Prometheus , praises Nolan’s skill in taking an extremely complex life story and miraculously turning it into "visual art that is faithful both to the history and the man."