Ever since the one-two punch of Lord of the Rings and (especially) Harry Potter (man, that was a great year), studios have been trying hard to find that next, great fantasy family-franchise. Did you guys notice this? It seemed like every possible kids' fantasy book, all with potential to be a series, was optioned and made into a movie…most with pretty spotty results...
And, so, we got stuff like Eragon, The Seeker: The Dark is Rising, The Water Horse, Inkheart (which had potential, but sadly fell apart), City of Ember, and The Spiderwick Chronicles. My pick for the best of these was The Golden Compass—a tricky piece of material (based on a very good book, even if its sequels didn’t live up to it) that, at the very least, had some magic and moments of wonder. And it was one of the few that seemed to love its source material, and not just trying to hit that fantasy money-making sweet spot.
Which brings us to Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Apparently, it’s another very popular children’s book series, tracing the great destiny of Percy, the son of Poseidon, and his adventures with the Greek gods in the modern world. I like that concept a lot, and I’m crazy about Greek mythology—we have far too few films tapping into that sprawling, epic, very fun world (I’m psyched for next year’s Sam Worthington-led, Clash of the Titans).
This movie will be based on the first book in the series, The Lightning Thief. And I have to give the filmmakers credit—they’re really trying for this to be a hit. They got Chris Columbus to direct (the guy who gave us the first two Harry Potter movies), hopefully getting that lightning to strike twice, and a hell of a cast—Pierce Brosnan (who was in Columbus’ Mrs. Doubtfire), Sean Bean (Lord of the Rings, Troy…and great to see him back in ancient-Greece territory—now can they just give him his long-deserved Odyssey movie?), Uma Thurman, Catherine Keener, Rosario Dawson, and Steve Coogan (Tropic Thunder, Octavius in the Night at the Museum movies) as the underworld god, Hades (brilliantly voiced by James Woods in Disney’s Hercules). The lead role falls to Logan Lerman, a talented young actor—he was really good as Christain Bale’s son in 3:10 to Yuma.
You can see the brand-new teaser above. I like some of the imagery (even if Mt. Olympus evokes a little too much Hogwarts), and I love this cast, but I still don’t have a solid grasp on the film. Could be fun…or it could be a star-filled, expensive, bland movie that will never see a sequel (after all, Eragon had an amazing cast too)—there’s far too little footage here to get a good feel for the the movie. Columbus made two good Harry Potter movies (although, in retrospect, he’s probably the weakest director to take on that franchise), and he does have a great eye for casting (as he showed by finding Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint). The material sounds ripe for some visual, epic fun…so let’s wait and see. I doubt it will be on the level of Harry Potter, but I’m certainly interested to see more.
How about you guys? Like the concept, or intrigued by the trailer?
And has anyone read the series it’s based on? This hits theaters February 12, 2010, so I’ll try to read a few of the books by then. If anyone’s familiar with it, shoot your thoughts in the comments below.
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