A new big screen take on Homer’s “The Odyssey” is on the way as Deadline today reports that Warner Bros. has set Russian director Fedor Bondarchuk (Stalingrad) to direct the epically-scaled Odysseus.
“The Killing” scribe Jeremy Doner will adapt Homer’s epic poem that tells the tale of Odysseus, a Greek King, who, following the events of the Trojan War, finds himself on a long, strange journey home that puts him up against cannibals, sea monsters, sirens and a cyclops.
In 2004, Warner Bros. adapted Homer’s The Iliad (which covers the events of the Trojan War) with German director Wolfang Petersen at the helm. In that film, which offered a wholly secular version of the story, Sean Bean played Odysseus. “The Odyssey” has spawned several direct adaptations, including 1955’s Ulysses, starring Kirk Douglas, and a 1997 Francis Ford Coppola-produced telefilm version, starring Armand Assante in the lead. Borrowing elements from Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels, Joel and Ethan Coen told their own version of “The Odyssey” in 2000 with O Brother, Where Art Thou?, starring George Clooney as the Odysseus character.
Shannon Gaulding, Bernie Goldmann and Gianni Nunnari of Hollywood Gang will produce Odysseus alongside Paul Heth and Michael Schlicht.
