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."