Oppenheimer is among Hollywood’s latest blockbusters. Is there a South Florida connection?
Even if you haven’t headed to the movie theater to watch “Barbie” or “Oppenheimer,” chances are you’ve heard folks raving about the films online.
“Barbenheimer” was a smash hit and collected more than $235 million at the box office this weekend. The films boasted the fourth highest-selling box office opening in history as the film industry has struggled to adapt to a post-pandemic world where audiences opt to watch movies from home via streaming services.
But “Oppenheimer,” the Christopher Nolan-directed film about physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his work on developing atomic bombs, has a South Florida connection. So, what is it?
Kai Bird, who wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer” — on which the Oppenheimer movie is based — is a part-time resident of Miami Beach.
Bird was also a vocal critic of the Z Capital, the private equity company that bought the Carillon’s hotel and oceanfront spa. The wealthy North Beach high-rise complex also houses condo units. Bird was one of the few condo owners willing to speak to the Miami Herald about the topic on the record.
Many condo dwellers, a number of them affluent snowbirds from the Northeast seeking a healthy lifestyle, told the Miami Herald in 2022 that the spa, hotel and common areas, while still upscale, aren’t what they used to be — or what they were promised — despite the Carillon still ranking as one of the top 15 domestic spas by Travel + Leisure Magazine and reportedly a draw for celebrities ranging from Alec Baldwin to Barbara Walters to Zac Efron.
A historian and journalist, Bird has also written biographies about former President Jimmy Carter; CIA officer Robert Ames, who helped start negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization; and McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy, brothers who shaped American foreign policy during the Vietnam War.
