Joe & Anthony Russo say Hercules remake won’t be a literal translation

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Another day, another live-action Disney remake. The studio announced last week that HERCULES would be the latest of their animated films to receive a live-action remake as they tapped Dave Callaham, who penned Marvel's upcoming SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS and Warner Bros.' WONDER WOMAN 1984, with writing the script. Joe and Anthony Russo are set to produce the film via their AGBO banner, and the brothers recently spoke with Collider about exactly why they're involved in the project.

"Both us and our kids are Hercules fanatics," said Anthony. "And we had heard that Disney was interested in revisiting it and we’re in love with the original. And we made a case as to why we felt we would be right to produce that film and here we are." Disney's slate of live-action remakes have come under fire, some more than others, for basically serving as shot-for-shot remakes of the original movies, but the Russo's say that HERCULES likely won't receive the same criticism.

Well, I think you always have to bring something new to the table because from our perspective as storytellers, it’s not compelling for us to do a literal translation. We’ve already done that with our Marvel films. We don’t do literal translations of the comics because we feel like if you want that story you can go read that story. We’re going to give you a different story. I think we’ll do something that’s in the vein of the original and inspired by it, but we also bring some new elements to the table.

It's nice to know that they plan to play with the formula a little bit this time around, but it's still early days on the project, so it's hard to say just how different HERCULES will become in its live-action form. The original film featured the voices of Tate Donovan, Danny DeVito, Susan Egan, and James Woods as Hades, the lord of the underworld. Here's the synopsis of the original film: "Disney tackles Greek mythology in this animated feature. Hercules (Tate Donovan), a son of gods, was snatched as a baby by Hades (James Woods) and forced to live among mortals as a half-man, half-god. Now a teenager, Hercules needs to perform a rite of passage on Earth to prove himself worthy of living with the gods on Mount Olympus. With his plucky satyr sidekick, Philoctetes (Danny DeVito), along for the ride, Hercules must learn how to use his strength to defeat a series of evil creatures."