{"id":1619,"date":"2007-04-16T13:43:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-16T13:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/04\/clash-of-the-titans-another-film-gets-remade\/"},"modified":"2007-04-16T13:43:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-16T13:43:00","slug":"clash-of-the-titans-another-film-gets-remade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/04\/clash-of-the-titans-another-film-gets-remade.html","title":{"rendered":"Clash of the Titans — another film gets remade"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
I was a huge fan of Greek myths when I was a wee lad. I used to tell the stories of Perseus and the others to my friends when we had sleepovers, and when Clash of the Titans<\/a><\/i> \u2014 the last movie to feature Ray Harryhausen<\/a>\u2018s classic stop-motion animation \u2014 came out in 1981, my friends told me all about the film and asked me how it squared with the original myths. Despite the film\u2019s revisionism, I actually rather enjoyed it; I missed its theatrical run, but once it came out on video, I watched it quite a bit.<\/span><\/p>\n

So my curiosity is piqued, now that the Hollywood Reporter<\/a><\/i> says Lawrence Kasdan has been hired to write a remake of this film. Kasdan had the good fortune to work for George Lucas when Lucasfilm was at its creative peak \u2014 Kasdan scripted The Empire Strikes Back<\/a><\/i> (1980) and Raiders of the Lost Ark<\/a><\/i> (1981), as well as Return of the Jedi<\/a><\/i> (1983) \u2014 and he captured the aging-baby- boomer zeitgeist quite well with The Big Chill<\/a><\/i> (1983), which he also directed. But his output since then has been a mixed bag, and his last film, Dreamcatcher<\/a><\/i> (2003), was an awful, awful mess.<\/p>\n

I must confess that I had always hoped a remake of Clash of the Titans<\/i> would be made further down the road, when a certain actor was old enough to step into the shoes of Laurence Olivier, who played Zeus, king of the gods, in the original film. Ten years ago, when I interviewed Kenneth Branagh<\/a>, we had this exchange \u2014 riffing on the fact that Branagh was hailed as the second coming of Olivier back in the day, not least because both of them made their directorial debuts with adaptations of Henry V<\/i> (1944<\/a>, 1989<\/a>):<\/p>\n

PTC:<\/b> Do you ever worry about being typecast with Shakespeare, in the sense that even when you\u2019re just acting, in Othello<\/i>, or just directing, in A Midwinter\u2019s Tale<\/i>, that people won\u2019t let you do anything else?<\/p>\n

KB:<\/b> No, I don\u2019t worry about it, because you just have to follow your nose, and you get typecast in the last thing that was successful is what happens, I think. And there are worse things to be typecast as, so that\u2019s just the way things go. I mean, in the same way that some people find some of the American actors difficult to accept, them speaking Shakespeare when they\u2019ve got baggage from other parts or other screen personas. It may be that I\u2019m dogged in future by people who find it difficult to accept me in a modern role when they think I should have a pair of black tights on.<\/p>\n

PTC:<\/b> They\u2019ll want you to play Zeus in a remake of Clash of the Titans<\/i>.<\/p>\n

KB:<\/b> Oh, well, I don\u2019t know about that. (laughs)<\/i> I saw Clash of the Titans<\/i>, isn\u2019t it? With Harry Hamlin? Maggie Smith\u2019s in that as well, with all the gods up there \u2014 they\u2019re all looking into that wee pool, weren\u2019t they? That was Ray Harryhausen, wasn\u2019t it, who did \u2014 did you ever see Jason and the Argonauts<\/i>? I loved that. It\u2019s a great picture. It still holds up, even though the special effects are what they are, it still holds up, all those little skeleton men, and that big bird.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ever since that exchange, I have secretly wanted to see Branagh in this role. The thing is, Olivier was 73 when he played Zeus, but Branagh is only 46, so it\u2019s not quite time for him to tackle this part, yet. But who knows, maybe they\u2019ll remake this film again<\/i> in another quarter-century. Branagh\u2019s time will come.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was a huge fan of Greek myths when I was a wee lad. I used to tell the stories of Perseus and the others to my friends when we had sleepovers, and when Clash of the Titans \u2014 the last movie to feature Ray Harryhausen\u2018s classic stop-motion animation \u2014 came out in 1981, my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nClash of the Titans -- another film gets remade<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I was a huge fan of Greek myths when I was a wee lad. 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