Warners Developing Sci-Fi Version Of THE ODYSSEY

odysseyWarner Brothers is looking at transporting one of the most classic pieces of adventure fiction into outer space – Homer’s The Odyssey.

The studio has just hired newcomer screenwriter James DiLapo to adapt the classic Greek epic, substituting spacesuits and rockets for togas and boats. The studio sees this project as a possible franchise launcher.

For those who snoozed through their various high school or college literature classes, The Odyssey was Homer’s sequel to The Illiad in which hero Odysseus 10 year struggle to return home from the Trojan Wars to resume his role as King of Ithaca. Along the way he and his men encounter a variety of gods and monsters including a cyclops and the witch Circe.

Although DiLapano is fairly fresh out of New York University and doesn’t have any produced credits yet, he was the winner of the Nichols Fellowship last year and had his spec script Devils At Play, a paranoid thriller set in 1937 Soviet Union, make the 2012 Black List. The Warners brass are impressed enough with his work that they have given him a deal just to stay with the studio.

Honestly, this doesn’t strike me as such a bad idea. Classic stories have been transposed into other genres all the time. The works of Shakespeare have been made into everything from science-fiction films (Forbidden Planet) to teen comedies (10 Things I Hate About You). And since outer space can be as inhabited with dangerous beings and situations as Greek mythology, why not set the story there?

Via Deadline.

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About Rich Drees 7291 Articles
A film fan since he first saw that Rebel Blockade Runner fleeing the massive Imperial Star Destroyer at the tender age of 8 and a veteran freelance journalist with twenty-five years experience writing about film and pop culture. He is a member of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle.
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