A new adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey is in the works, and it's from the director and creative team behind The Hunger Games: Mockingjay.
NewsWith the end of The Hunger Games franchise (at least in its original form) in sight, Lionsgate turns its attention to another literary story of even more epic proportions.
It was learned Wednesday that Lionsgate is developing a new adaptation of Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey. And the creative team for the last two Hunger Games films, including The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, is climbing aboard for this new saga.
Director Francis Lawrence, screenwriter Peter Craig, and producer Nina Jacobson have all joined the project. Lawrence, who also directed The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and Jacobson (who has produced all four Katniss films), are looking to begin production in early 2016, immediately following the Mockingjay press tour, which will crescendo with the November 20, 2015 release of that film.
The Odyssey has been adapted to screen several times and is the continuation of Odysseus’ adventures following the Trojan War. In many ways a follow-up to Homer’s The Iliad (which ended well before the myth about Odysseus concocting a Trojan Horse to win the war), The Odyssey tracks the 10-year journey of Odysseus who is punished for mocking the gods by being unable to return home for a decade. On his travels, the literary figure met sirens, a Cyclops, and all manner of supernatural temptations before returning home to face his wife’s bombardment of ill-advised suitors.
No word yet if they’ll get Sean Bean to reprise his role from 2004’s goofy vainglorious Troy, but we wouldn’t mind…
