American Prometheus (2026)

American Prometheus is the title of an unrealized film project about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist whose leadership of the Manhattan Project made him one of the most consequential scientific figures of the twentieth century. The proposed adaptation would have focused particularly on the 1954 security hearing that threatened his career and reputation.

The project has an unusual place in film history because writer-director Robert Edwards pursued the adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography long before Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer was made. The story of the project itself became a subject of discussion about Hollywood development, creative ownership and the difficulty of getting historical dramas produced.

• Based on American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.
• Robert Edwards optioned the book in 2006.
• Edwards' proposed version was centered on the 1954 security hearing.
• The project was never produced as a feature film.
• The subject was revisited in 2026 through the Films Not Made podcast series.