The Greco-Roman revival lives on — and so, perhaps, does the recent interest in feminist revisionist origin stories.
Sony Pictures Animation announced last week that they are now developing a film about Medusa, the creature from Greek mythology who had snakes for hair and could turn anyone into stone if they looked directly at her.
In an official statement, director Lauren Faust (creator of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) described the film as a “unique re-imagining of Greek mythology”:
In our story, we meet Medusa as a young human, who, like so many of us, is overwhelmed with trying to fit a certain mold to please others. Her resulting popularity ticks off the wrong Goddess who turns her into the snake-haired monster we all know and fear. Medusa sets out on a quest to reverse this curse with the help of a goofy team of oddball and misfit mythological creatures who help her learn that what makes you different is, in fact, what makes you strong.
In Greek myth, Medusa was generally described as one of three monstrous sisters known as the Gorgons. The later Roman poet Ovid said Medusa was originally very beautiful, but the goddess Athena cursed her and gave her face its deadly power after Medusa was raped by the god Poseidon in Athena’s temple.
I wouldn’t expect any of that to end up in the new film, but you never know. The rape followed by the curse lends itself to a sympathetic story arc, and though it would obviously have to be toned down for the kids, Disney’s Maleficent has proved that you can make a lot of money by turning a traditional female villain into an innocent victim who only seems evil because she wants revenge against the man who physically violated her. Then again, Maleficent is a somewhat grim fantasy movie, whereas it sounds like Medusa is going to be more comedic and upbeat.
Other questions come to mind. For example: Will Medusa’s “goofy” friends have to make a point of not looking at her, lest they turn to stone? Or is the Medusa of this film simply going to be ugly, without any consequences for other people?
Also: In Greek myth, Medusa was eventually killed by the hero Perseus, who gave her head to Athena — the goddess who cursed Medusa in the first place. Athena then put Medusa’s head on her shield, the Aegis. I don’t expect this film to tackle all that stuff explicitly, but I wonder if it will at least nod to those stories in some way.
Cartoon Brew notes that the film hasn’t been greenlit yet, and cautions that Sony Pictures Animation “has struggled more than any other major studio in trusting its directors with original ideas.” So the nature of this project — who’s working on it, what the story’s about, etc. — could change between now and whenever it’s finished.
In any case, this certainly wouldn’t be the first that we’ve seen of Medusa during the current Greco-Roman revival. Four years ago she appeared in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, where she was played by Uma Thurman, and in Clash of the Titans, where she was played by Natalia Vodianova.
The last major animated film to be based on Greek mythology was Disney’s Hercules, released in 1997. Agamemnon and the Trojan Horse played a significant part in this year’s history-spanning Mr. Peabody & Sherman, too.
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