November 09, 2008

"War of the Gods" vs. "Clash of the Titans"

"War of the Gods" is supposed to be a story about Theseus and "Clash of Titans" a story about Perseus. If a new Hercules movie materializes, then there may a movie about each of the major pre-Trojan Greek heroes in the works. And, apparently, NBC has a Jason and the Argonauts type TV project in the works. Personally, I'm more excited about seeing Xenophon's Anabasis or the 300 sequel than these other projects, but let's hope that at least 1 or 2 of them will be good like 300 and the Odyssey, and fewer of them mediocre like Alexander or Helen of Troy, or plain laughable like Troy.

Variety reports:
Relativity Media is negotiating with Henry Cavill ("The Tudors") to star as Theseus in the Tarsem Singh-directed "War of the Gods."

At the same time, Warner Bros. is in talks with Sam Worthington to play the role of Perseus in the Louis Leterrier-directed "Clash of the Titans."

Deals for both actors are expected to be worked out, keeping the Greek mythology-themed projects on a parallel track. Both films are expected to begin production by late winter or early spring.

The projects have different plots, but each film will be made for under $100 million because the visual effects will be accomplished using the greenscreen techniques that made "300" so visually arresting.

Relativity got in the Greek game last summer when it bought the Charley and Vlas Parlapanides-scripted "War of the Gods" (Daily Variety, June 26).

Hollywood Gang's Gianni Nunnari and Canton Prods.' Mark Canton are producing with Ryan Kavanaugh.

At the same time, "The Incredible Hulk" helmer Leterrier committed to WB's "Clash of the Titans," a remake of the 1981 film that tells the story of Zeus son Perseus' journey and battles against Medusa. Scripted by Lawrence Kasdan, the WB film is a co-production with Legendary Pictures, produced by Basil Iwanyk of Thunder Road and Kevin De La Noy.

Cavill is best known for his work on Showtime's "The Tudors" but was also on the shortlist to play the Man of Steel in "Superman Returns."

Worthington, one of the finalists for the James Bond role that went to Daniel Craig, is starring for director James Cameron in "Avatar" and plays a pivotal role in the McG-directed "Terminator Salvation."

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am amazed that you consider Odyssey a good work, I think it is a very poor thing I was very disappointed of it. I saw Odyssey of Franco Rossi for the Italian public tv and it it was really a great work, as also the Eneide. Great quality and correct philological reading.

Try to see some clip on youtube

http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=1ysoCbhA68Y

Dienekes Pontikos said...

I am amazed that you consider Odyssey a good work, I think it is a very poor thing I was very disappointed of it.

It was true to the original, and all the major characters were well acted. It also had a nice rural feel to it, especially the scenes in Ithaca.. more Bronze Age Greece and less kitschy impressive sets.

I saw Odyssey of Franco Rossi for the Italian public tv

When was that?

Crimson Guard said...

I have the CLASH OF THE TITANS scripts (both the 2003 and "Revised" 2007 version), both are loose remakes of the original.

The 200 version is alot better in nearly every way--although its even more loosely based on the original than the Revised edition is, which seems closer to source material but also not quite. The 2007 "Revised" version is WAY more FX driven with a seemingly higher budget being emphasized . I think the battle with the corrupted Centaurs on Medusa's island is the best part it. Both scripts though I have to say are more Conan-like than KING CONAN was. The Revised edition is too much LOTR or NARNIA along with the Playstation game God of War(which was actually influenced by Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans in fact) playing a part in its production. The usage of Set seem superficially taken from RE HOWARD(CONAN THE BARBARIAN fame), the correct version should be Typhon, but being that the story is set in the Near East, with Greek and Oriental/Hamitic/Semitic converging together its forgivable. Only real problem with both versions is that they dont correct the mistakes of the original film, being that there is not one Titan in the damn story/movie,LOL.



All in all I think they should use the first draft with maybe adding a few bits of the 2nd Draft things in there, but with casting, editing and directing, could ruin an otherwise decent script(s). But these days we have to prey for the best but constantly expect the worst.

A bad thing with these movies, is today you'll have Blacks and very Anglo looking actors playing parts.

Anonymous said...

It was in the 1968 or 69, but it is in dvd now.
I repeat, the Odyssey of Konchalovski seems a Andersen's fable to tell to the children. Rossi did a big work helped by researchers on the bronze age. Many European countries were in the production and the cast was excellent. Beckim Femiu Ulisses and Irene Papas Penelope
Rossi after made also an excellent movie on the Vergil's Eneide.

Crimson Guard said...

I saw the Rossi version once before, it wasnt bad, along with that Kirk Douglas one Ulysses". The Armand Assante version was good but a TV made production. I would like see a truly accurate versions made with the correct period (Dendra)armor and the gods included, but this doesnt seem possible these days.

The 300 , movie is a purely fantasy and comic book movie. I'd rather see a more historical and authentic version made, the old 1962 movie with Richard Egen wasn't bad at all, it was one of my favorites. For a comic book movie 300 its pretty close to Miller's material and it got something of the Spartan feel. But not many people are aware that 300's soundtrack was a plagiarized production, but I suppose this is normal Hollywood:

"The score has given rise to some controversy in the film composer community, garnering criticism for its striking similarity to several other recent soundtracks, including James Horner and Gabriel Yared's work for the film Troy. The heaviest borrowings are said to be from Elliot Goldenthal's 1999 score for Titus. "Remember Us," from 300, is identical in parts to the "Finale" from Titus, and "Returns a King" is similar to the cue "Victorius Titus."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_movie#Soundtrack

Goldenthal's piece:

http://www.lastfm.fr/music/Elliot+Goldenthal/_/Victorius+Titus+(Vocal)

Anonymous said...

"It was true to the original, and all the major characters were well acted. It also had a nice rural feel to it, especially the scenes in Ithaca.. more Bronze Age Greece and less kitschy impressive sets."

It wasn't that completely true to the original. The Nereids, including Calypso herself, were depicted as Negroids.

Dienekes said...

It wasn't that completely true to the original. The Nereids, including Calypso herself, were depicted as Negroids.

Well, I don't expect an international English-language production to have a racially appropriate cast, since English isn't native to any of the Mediterranean lands featured in the Odyssey.

But, my recollection doesn't include any description of Calypso's race or general appearance that would make this a particularly troublesome point.

Crimson Guard said...

Wasnt she supposed to be the daughter of Nereus and Atlas? If so, doubt she was Negroid(Vanessa Williams though is part Europoid to be more precise). Her Island was identified as being either Malta or some Ionian sea island.

Anonymous said...

Around Calipso Omero wrote that she had curly hair, in other verses he wrote she had curly head and of curly gold hair.
Nevertheless I discussed about the philological reading of the poem, according to me not correct, not on the choice of the characters.

Anonymous said...

"But, my recollection doesn't include any description of Calypso's race or general appearance that would make this a particularly troublesome point."

The Nereids (Νηρηΐδες) were the fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris. You actually think there could have been Negroid deities in the ancient Greek religion? Sounds a bit afrocentrist of you.