Peter Berg is directing half man/half God, HERCULES!

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Posted by Matt Holmes. Last modified on July 23rd, 2008 at 07:38am

Peter Berg is directing half man/half God, HERCULES!

Peter Berg (Hancock, The Kingdom) is already attached to remake the fantasy movie Dune for Paramount but today comes news of a potentially bigger epic. It’s been announced that Universal have hired the helmer to spearhead a new movie based on the famous legend of Greek mythology, Hercules.

The project is based on the new 5 issue comic book series that debuted in May from Steve Moore.

The movie will be titled Hercules: The Thracian Wars (what’s wrong with just Hercules) and will be co-financed by Spyglass Entertainment and produced by Berg’s own Film 44 and Radical Pictures

MMM, I love the Hercules character - I’ve always found him more fascinating than the likes of Conan and the writings of Robert E. Howard but I’m not sure Berg is the man here. If his last two movies have shown us anything it’s that Berg is a terrific director of action sequences but hasn’t got a clue narratively how to direct a blockbuster movie or epic sized movie.

And his directing is so modern, he feels like an MTV director. Would that suit a movie about Greek mythology, I’m not so sure?

As the Hercules character is in the public domain, the rival project from writer Sean Hood (Halloween: Resurrection, The Crow: Wicked Prayer) at Millenium Films is not effected by this move - though we haven’t heard any movement on it since May 2007. It would seem the studio weren’t all that keen on the script, and had put the project on the backburner with adapts of Conan and Red Sonja being more important.

source - variety

Categories: Hercules: The Thracian Wars, Movie News, New Project, peter berg

4 Comments »

I wonder whether this will be filmed traditionally or on green screen. The latter seemed to be the biggest reason 300 was such a hit, so it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the studio went with that approach.

Comment by cambion | July 23, 2008

So it’s Clash of the Titans vs War of the Gods vs Hercules: The Thracian Wars? Any I missed? There is also that 300 sequel in the works and maybe Conan. Is there really enough room for all of these movies?

Comment by Hellen | July 23, 2008

I’ve not seen the comic but this sounds cool. Just as long as they don;t mutilate Greek myth like the Disney depiction of Hercules…

I like the suffix of The Thracian Wars. It’ll help distinguish the film against other movies and TV shows and gives it a sense of setting. Plus when they no doubt breed other bits ‘n’ pieces into what will inevitably become a monster franchise it’ll be easier to recognise and refer to sequels, etc. I’m not sure about Berg, as you say Matt, in terms of epic cinema-crafting, and he didn’t seem to be on sure footing with Hancock when it hinted at supernatural mythology either. If you’re going to do Hercules, it’s got to be colossal, not a crass cheap action afterthought.

Comment by James Clayton | July 23, 2008

[...] Another new Hercules project has been put into production. Russian action star/producer Alexander Nevsky has put plans in place to make Hercules: The Beginning - a $12 million project that will rival Millennium Films tentpole release of 2010 AND a Peter Berg directed adaptation over at Spyglass. [...]

Pingback by Now we get HERCLUES: THE BEGINNING! | Obsessed With Film | August 8, 2008