Los Angeles, Oct 9 (IANS): 'Peaky Blinders' star Cillian Murphy will play J. Robert Oppenheimer, the American physicist whose role in running the Los Alamos (Nevada) Laboratory and involvement in the Manhattan Project has led him to be dubbed the "father of the atomic bomb", reports Variety.com

The upcoming historical epic will be directed by Christopher Nolan, who has previously collaborated with Murphy in 'Batman Begins' (where the actor memorably essayed the role of Scarecrow), 'Inception' and 'Dunkirk'.

Universal Pictures, according to Variety.com, will make the $100 million film after winning the rights in "a feverish bidding war that also saw the likes of Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros".

The latter studio had released nearly every Nolan picture, the latest being 'Tenet', but their relationship grew strained after the filmmaker criticised Warner Bros for releasing its entire 2021 slate simultaneously in theatres and on HBO Max because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

'Oppenheimer' is slated for a July 21, 2023 release across North America.