IGN FilmForce talked with Hollywood scribe Frank Cottrell Boyce recently who is currently adapting Homer's "The Odyssey" for a Hollywood production. As many will know, "The Odyssey" follows directly on from the events of "The Iliad" and is the story of King Odysseus and his magical and treacherous journey home following the conquest of Troy.
This year's "Troy", based mostly on "The Iliad" but borrowing elements from "The Odyssey" (most notably the Trojan Horse), Sean Bean played the role of Odysseus. Boyce "wasn't that happy with leaving the gods out of Troy".
His "Odyssey" will be more mystical - "I'd much rather go for it, although, actually, it is very difficult to get the gods to work, because in the background there is always the shadow of Laurence Olivier in a purple-white robe playing chess [as in 1981's "Clash of the Titans"]. I'll probably use some of the more prophetic bits of it, where you're predicting how the journey's going to turn out and stuff like that. There are just some lines that you can't do without. But I'm going to play around with it. Troy was quite serious. This is more kind of Ray Harryhausen territory"
This will also skew for a much younger and more family friendly audience - "The version that we're doing is very much from the point of view of Telamachus, Odysseus' son, who goes looking for him. You get to Odysseus, and you do see a lot of Odysseus in the film, but the controlling point of view is Telemachus. So it's kind of about fathers and sons, and it's young in that way".
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Thanks to 'Bean-y Baby'.
