The Notable Films of 2011: Part Seven

Immortals
Opens: November 11th 2011
Cast: Henry Cavill, Mickey Rourke, Stephen Dorff, Freida Pinto, John Hurt
Director: Tarsem Singh

Summary: The power hungry King Hyperion is destroying all before him in his quest to possesses an artifact that can unleash the Titans, the race of beings imprisoned by the Olympian Gods deep within the walls of Mount Tartaros. As the Gods can not intervene in man’s conflict, a young peasant is secretly chosen to save his people from Hyperion and his hordes.

Analysis: A few years ago, 2010 was shaping up to be the battle of ancient Greek epics with Warners $70 million "Clash of the Titans" remake and Relativity's $85 million "War of the Gods" set to duke it out. It was a race to the finishing line that 'Clash' quickly got the upper hand in when 'War' hit some major production delays. Changing its title from 'War' to "Immortals", the project didn't end up shooting until over a year after originally planned, in fact just after 'Clash' hit cinemas.

First in this race however doesn't always mean you win. Despite strong global box-office, 'Clash' was a critical fizzer and a decision to rush it through the 3D post-conversion process led to it becoming the poster child for how to do 3D badly. Even though Warners has greenlit a sequel, even those involved seem to realise how much of a dud the first one was and how it will have to seriously improve in its second outing.

"Immortals" meanwhile has calmly and quietly moved into place and could end up getting not just the financial rewards, but a smidgeon more of the critical respect that both 'Clash' and Zack Snyder's "300" failed to receive. It's helmed by Tarsem Singh who is one of the most striking visual directors working today and when given the right material, like 2006's "The Fall", he can make a great yarn.

Visually, Tarsem says the film will be "Caravaggio meets Fight Club. It’s a really hardcore action film done in Renaissance painting style". Don't expect historical accuracy either, Tarsem floated the idea back in 2009 that the film will be partly contemporary - "Renaissance time with electricity" he calls it, much like the way Julie Taymor blended 30's-era technology into her ancient Rome-set film adaptation of "Titus Andronicus".

The lead is Henry Cavill, the rising British hunk famed for being one of the three finalists for James Bond in "Casino Royale". The other two were Daniel Craig of course, and 'Clash' lead Sam Worthington. Cavill's performance here has one advantage over Worthington's turn in 'Clash', he gets his shirt off and plenty. Sadly though, he also seems to be wearing pants (Sam was at least up for some 'up kilt camera' action).

The supporting cast includes a surprisingly young batch of Greek gods including "Tamara Drewe" piece of crumpet Luke Evans as Zeus, "Twilight" & Calvin Klein model Kellan Lutz as Poseidon, Aussie soap babe Isabel Lucas as Athena, and Corey Sevier as Apollo. Other roles consist more of seasoned veterans including Mickey Rourke, John Hurt and Stephen Dorff, while "Slumdog Millionaire" actress Freida Pinto is the female lead. Dorff recently claimed inan interview that "So much of that movie is going to be done in post-production" and so he has no idea what the final result will look like.

Though Cavill is playing Theseus, this is not an adaptation of that particular story with the labyrinth and the minotaur. Scribes Chris and Vlas Parlapanides claim the film will be an original piece that will interweave various story elements from Greek mythology against both the personal story of the main character, and the backdrop of the war between the Titans and the Olympian Gods - a setting many video gamers will be familiar with thanks to the "God of War" series.

Universal is scheduled to release the film mid-November, so we won't likely get a good glimpse at what the film will ultimately look like until a first trailer in the early Summer. I'd expect a big promotion at Comic Con in July as well.

DarkHorizons for the rest
xoxo
Carrie