Greek mythology had a slight boom in the 90s when it was used as the basis for two fantasy series that readers of this site are certainly no strangers to: Hercules: the Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess. Both shows liberally mashed up the Greek myths to their liking, but after a while seemed to forgo Greece altogether to focus on other world mythologies, notably Indian, Celtic, Nordic, and Egyptian.
But what goes around comes around, and it was only a matter of time before the Olympian gods reared their omnipotent heads again. After all, Middle Earth, Narnia, and Hogwarts can only sustain one for so long. For lovers of Grecian lore, the time for salivation is nigh.
In the wake of the success of 300, there are several film projects that are coming up in the near future, and they actually all look pretty promising.
Anyone who hasn’t had their head in the sand for the past few months knows that Warner Brothers is releasing a remake of the classic 80s Greek myth movie, Clash of the Titans, in March of next year. The original was a fun, wild ride through a world that seemed to have been created by someone who had only read a children’s book about the basics of Greek myths, but it was a good time nonetheless. Based on some images released by Warner Brothers, the remake looks to be darker, grittier, and more violent than the original, as is the custom of the times, unfortunately. Apparently you can still make movies with guys in skirts; they’re just never allowed to smile. Thanks a lot for that joyless tradition, Troy.
Chris Columbus, director of the first two Harry Potter films, is now directing another film version of a literary young adult fantasy franchise. The Lightning Thief, the first in a series of books about a modern day boy who happens to be the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea, opens on February 12, 2010. The series, called Percy Jackson and the Olympians and written by Rick Riordan, consists of five books as well as a couple of spin-off titles, so if the movie does well, there’s your next big fantasy franchise. But if we’ve learned anything from The Golden Compass, it’s not enough for a film to be fantastical with big special effects for it take off. It also has to not suck, which Compass wasn’t able to pull off. So fingers crossed.
Another project in the works is a film titled War of Gods (not to be confused with Greek myth-inspired video game series God of War). From Variety:
“War of Gods” is a mythological tale set in war-torn ancient Greece, as the young warrior prince Theseus leads his men in a battle against evil that will see the gods fighting with soldiers against demons and titans.
(Interestingly, Theseus is most famous for the myth in which he slew the half-bull, half-human Minotaur on what could have been a suicide mission, thus liberating Athens and becoming its king. Why no one has turned that story into a feature film is beyond me — it seems a lot more interesting and exciting than watching Gerard Butler yell at the camera and flex his abs.)
Just to make things more confusing, rumors abound about a possible film version of the video game God of War, but for now they remain just that: rumors.
Also on the horizon is the Scarlett Johansson vehicle, Amazon, but details are currently sketchy. All that’s known is she will play a woman warrior who does some ass-kicking. The term “gladiatrix” has been thrown around with this project, but whether they’re using that word loosely or they specifically mean a female version of a Roman gladiator is, for now, anyone’s guess. While Amazons are an invention of the Greeks, it doesn’t look like they’re going to stick to the original meaning.
At any rate, things are looking up for fans of Greek myths. Before you know it, we’ll be swimming in a sea of broad swords and tunics, and I, for one, couldn’t be happier.
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I’m torn on the proliferation of Greek myth inspired movies. This is good for getting the Greek myths out there, but at the same time, I’m a stickler for getting it right (or mostly right). I would love to see a version of the Theseus story, but they will probably screw it up like the Perseus myth.
Yeah, I wouldn’t count on these being very accurate, alas.
I’ve read The Lightning Thief and it’ll be interesting to see it as a movie. I love Greek myths and it would be great to see some well done versions of classic myths [i]that stick to the story[/i]
Agreed!
It all sounds good.
Although, I’m pretty sure “War of the Gods” and “Amazon” are both stuck in development h3ll. Also, following Scarlett Johansson’s casting as “Black Widow” in “Iron Man 2″, she may be more likely to pursue a “Black Widow” solo film/franchise to get her “action” film fix rather than “Amazon” (which sounds pretty sub-standard in its concept and reminds me of the UK comedy film “Gladiatress”).
While not delving into Greek mythology, there is also the “sequel” to “300″ which is currently in the writing stages and new “Conan” and “Red Sonja” films are being planned (although I think “Conan” is the more likely to actually make it into production and be released).
And I definitely echo everyone else’s desire to see a film somewhat accurately based on an Greek myth/tale. I’d definitely like to see a Theseus/Hippolyta film. Heck, I’d even like to see a somewhat accurate “Hercules” film (as accurate as one can be given the somewhat inconsistent myths/stories).
They just made a movie based on the Minotaur legend in 2006. It was called Minotaur. It was made for TV, but it was actually a little better than the average SciFi original series.