While this is hardly strange news for Hollywood, that doesn’t make it any less eyebrow-raising of a reality.
Last seen on the small screen in 1997 and sort of on the large screen in 2000 with O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU, Homer’s ancient epic THE ODYSSEY has hardly received the grand treatment one might thing its characters and creatures so call out for. Island witches, cyclopses (cyclopii?), divine intervention, sea monsters, archery contests, extensive bloodshed, the sort of fascinatingly clever puzzle solving done under extreme duress – it’s all there, wrapped up in one man’s massive ten year quest to make it home from the ruins of Troy to his wife and son.
Or make it back to Earth, rather. I assume, as that’s the only assumption I can make from the space-based proposition Warner Brothers is touting as its next big thing. Already planned to potentially be a franchise, the concept was initially hatched by Terry Douglas of 1821 Pictures (JANE GOT A GUN) and has since been passed along to screenwriter James DiLapo (whose pitch helped capture studio interest). DiLapo, a recent graduate of NYU, saw his first script DEVILS AT PLAY score both a place on the 2012 Black List and a Nicholls Fellowship (which, considering its stipend and prestige, is a bit of a big deal). So this is a great opportunity for him – let’s hope that it is equally so for audiences.
With the sprawling adaptation DiLapo has before him and the sort of pre-planning needed to bring a high-concept project like this to fruition, I imagine that it will be some time before we hear more regarding its progress. In the interim, for all you fans of Homer’s poem out there: what aspects of the new space-based setting excite you the most, and which generate the most apprehension in your literary-loving hearts?
This is why we ask for directions.