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3,000 Years in the Making! The Coming Greek Myth Movie Onslaught

Posted on 12 July 2009

Tags: Amazon, Clash of the Titans, God of War, Greek mythology, Movies, Percy Jackson, The Lightning Thief, War of Gods

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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The “Based-on-a-Video-Game” Curse: Will These Upcoming Movies Break it?

Posted on 09 July 2009

Tags: God of War, Movies, Prince of Persia, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Video Games

Cinematic interpretations of video games have a, uh, less-than-impressive track-record: Mortal Kombat, Super Mario Brothers, Double Dragon, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, D.O.A., Hitman, Bloodrayne, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, Alone in the Dark…

The list goes on. But it’s possible the psychic damage to gamers everywhere may soon be undone.

Sony’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune might possibly be getting the feature film treatment very soon. The game itself has often been compared to a fun summer action-adventure blockbuster, so chances are that if it jumps to the big screen, that’s exactly what they’ll go for.

The story features the Indiana Jones-like treasure hunter, Nate Drake, who is a descendant of famed explorer Sir Francis Drake. He believes he has discovered location of El Dorado, the fabled lost city of gold. Naturally, there’s a rival to contend with and a saucy, sexy lady who factors into the story as well. Furthermore, there are mutated creatures determined to keep Drake from his goal.

(A scribe named Kyle Ward was hired to pen the script. Interestingly, Ward is also involved with game-to-movie projects Hitman 2 and Kane and Lynch.)

God of War, a video game series that takes place in a world of Greek mythology on a cocktail of steroids and mescaline, may also be seeing a film version in the near future. There doesn’t seem to be too much information available yet beyond the canceled plan to have X-men 3 helmer Brett Ratner direct, but given the enormous success of 300 and the spate of Greek mythology movies due out next year, it seems likely that this will happen.

There’s an amusing video of God of War creator David Jaffe meeting notrious(ly bad) film director Uwe Boll, who is responsible for some of the worst video game movies out there. After a few minutes of forced politeness and light discussion about collaboration, Jaffe admits he would not want Boll to direct the potential God of War film:

Finally, there’s the well-publicized upcoming adaptation of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, starring Jake Gyllenhaal — which is significant in and of itself, for its not very often that video game movies score A-list actors to play their leads. It’s a Jerry Bruckheimer production, so expect a lot of action on a grandiose scale, and given all the promotional material, we can be sure we’ll be treated to a great many scenes of Gyllenhaal fighting topless.

Director Mike Newell, perhaps aware of the current perception of video game movies, had this to say concerning the nature of Prince of Persia:

“It’s not a videogame movie. It’s a great story. If you had read the script, you would know that it wasn’t a videogame. It’s very exciting and it’s immensely romantic and it’s like Lost Horizon. It takes you to somewhere you’ve never been.”

Only time will tell the outcome of these projects, but here’s hoping the curse of the video game movies is finally lifted.

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