Source: Lionsgate
The team behind The Hunger Games franchise is looking to make another literary adaptation, just going a bit older with its source material this time. According to a report from Deadline, Lionsgate is working on a big-budget film version of one of the oldest pieces of literature in the Western canon, Homer’s epic journey tale The Odyssey. That Greek epic poem has had incalculable influence on Western art and culture, all the way down to Hollywood films like Star Wars, Big Fish, and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, but according to Deadline, the studio is looking to tell the story in a more straightforward fashion from the many retellings that have been done before.
The Odyssey tells of the hero Odysseus’s journey back to his home in Ithaca after fighting in the Trojan War. That journey home takes him a decade, during which time his loyal wife Penelope and son Telemachus must fend off the suitors trying to win Penelope’s hand in Odysseus’s absence. Meanwhile, the wily Odysseus must battle lots of iconic monsters through both his might and his wit in order to get back to Ithaca, slay the suitors, and return to his place as the head of his family.
Deadline says that Hunger Games studio Lionsgate has assembled basically the entire Hunger Games team to make this adaptation; it seems like it’s only a matter of time before Jennifer Lawrence is announced for the part of Penelope. Francis Lawrence, who directed three out of the four Hunger Games movies, will direct. Peter Craig, who co-wrote the two installments of Hunger Games: Mockingjay, is adapting the screenplay. Nina Jacobson, who guided the Hunger Games franchise from its inception, will be producing this movie, as well.
The publication wrote that Lionsgate really wants to get the show on the road with this movie, as the final installment of its biggest cash cow, The Hunger Games, comes out in November.