It looks like Brad Pitt is gearing up to tackle another epic in the Odyssey …..in space? We get the scoop thanks to our friends at cinematical:
First, we got The Iliad morphed into Troy, with Pitt playing Achilles. Now Variety reports that Pitt is teaming up with Warner Bros. once again to make Homer’s next epic, The Odyssey — with George Miller adapting. Now you might wonder how Pitt can continue on when the story moves over to Sean Bean’s Odysseus. First — Pitt is on-board as producer. Second — the hope is that Pitt will take over the role.
But that’s not all they’re doing to jazz the story up — their “intention is to transfer the tale to a futuristic setting in outer space.” If things work out, the plan is to get Miller to also direct the film, with Pitt journeying through space in whatever fashion Miller dreams up.
The Iliad didn’t work for you so you’re taking the Odyssey to space? This seems like a peculiar mistake right from the beginning. If Troy was awesome, I think people would be a lot more forgiving with the creative liberties; this looks like they’re building a train wreck from scratch.
I haven’t had the chance to read the Odyssey, but it’s certainly on the list. This epic poem is nearing 3000 years old. When a work spans millennia I want to see it adapted to film as best as possible with modern master smiths bringing the text to the world of cinema. I don’t want to see a hatchet job in space.
Just one thing to say: Oh brother, where are thou? is a very recent adaptation of the odessey, and a dammed good one. But that was a very clever way of adapting the story, and a very long shot. To take it to space sounds like they are pushing it.
A bit different to the likes of Fight Club!
Imagine it might go with certain viewers, doesn’t sound like my cup of tea though!
this sounds like it could be an amazing concept if handled right.
fwiw, ‘oh brother where art thou?’ was the best adaptation of the odyssey i’ve ever seen.
hmmmm okay… that will be intresting. btw there was a anmated series like that in the 80’s right?
wont let me post the vid heres the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ4c1X5ene8
i hope pitt grows the 70’s porn beard
okay anyone ever see this
that is the odyssey n space.
Bjon, I never said realistic, I’m just saying you can adapt certain themes and myths to modern standars. We have been doing it all through history.
Everything is derivative, and there is no originality. Every idea borrows from something.
All that matters is how you execute the idea.
Point and Case: Star Wars: A New Hope, George Lucas borrows heavily from everything. The Wizard of Oz, Dune, LOTR, Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress to name a few influences.
Independance Day is a vamped of version of H.G Wells War of the Worlds. It even had the same way of killing the aliens, a simple virus, though it was a computer virus in this version.
And on changin other bodies of work making another film, book or whatever is not allways a bad idea.
Point and Case: Baron Munchausen by Terry Gilliam, he hardly sticks to the source material, but that is one of the most wonderous films I have seen, a true feast for the imagination.
Guy ritchi is making a different version of Sherlock Holmes, Dr. House is based on Sherlock Holmes, only he uses his detecting skills for finding diseases instead of solving crime. I could go on and on.
Point is just because people are not sticking to the things like they were written, be it that they change the time of the piece ( Romeo & Juliet ) Drop characters from the narrative, remove entire segments from the work, change the Dialog (LOTR, Which in a funny way actually made the story better).
As long as the people that are making changes and/or borrowing/stealing from the source material have respect for the material they are dealing with, who knows, mabey something great could come from it.
The Shining and Blade Runner are another excelent example of this, those films were both vastly superior to their source material.
yo Edvin and everybody else out there with these ideas about how to transform mythology into something real,
THAT’S BULLSHIT!! IF it’s mythology, just put myTHOLOGY on the SCREEN!! Why does it have to be REALISTIC??!! I don’t get it. Is mythology not cool as shit!
GOD! I don’t get it.
Okay, Doug, the Odyssey is not a poem. You should read it. It was tight. But when you do, you will see that a lot of the people that died in the recent Troy movie actually didn’t fuckin die because they were in the fuckin Odyssey which is POST Troy and that movie will annoy you even more.
Anyways, the Odyssey is a tight book, it’s not a poem and I could see them adapting it to space. It’s all mythology anyways. I mean, why not space? Instead of making Poseidon the god of the sea, they could just make him the god of….space…haha. It could work. Instead of prolonging Odysseus’s journey by puttin insurmountable waves in his path, Poseidon could throw meteor showers his way or some shit. hahahaha
Okay this is cracking me up. Maybe it’s not a good idea. But who knows? It’s Hollywood. It’s the movies.
Maybe Brad Pitt will make a cameo appearance doing a gay dance on a treadmill
Sounds, oh, I dunno,…FUCKING STUPID? I liked Troy, hell I LOVED it. It’s stupid to take this into space. It’s like making a sci-fi version of Beowulf in the future.
I was able to accept “Treasure Island” in space because Hollywood made so many movies about it before. But I don’t think there’s ever been a big budget blockbuster version of the original Odyssey so why would they bring it right into outer space when most people don’t even know the story? You might as well recount the legend of King Arthur in a submarine.
Looked up George Miller.. and aside from Mad Max 2-3 nothing he has done remotly comes close to Sci-Fi.
And that was during the 80’s… I mean Babe, a film about a talking Pig, Happy Feet, dancing penguins… and on to Science Fiction based on greek mythology, this could be a trainwreck, here’s hoping not.
Jesus… that sounds like an awesome idea… An epic quest with space as the backdrop…
Most things don’t have to be directly translated … scylla could be a gravity well instead of a six-headed monster…
At one time in the epic poem they get stranded on an island where a witch turns many of his men into swines… this could be accomplished by some kind of space anomoly.
The possibilities are endless.
Many Sci-Fi stories borrow from old myths and make it work through metaphors.
The only thing that needs to be held intact is the original feeling and mythos about a man trying to get home to his wife and family while facing insurmountable odds while doing it, and being forced to sacrifice his men, his humanity, and making great sacrifices, but overcoming those odds and making it home after decades of strife.