It seems that after the horror of the Clash of the Titans remake and its sequel that there might actually be a good film based on Greek mythology as the first trailer for Hercules, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the titular son of Zeus, hit the interwebs.
The film is based on the limited series Hercules comic written by the late Steve Moore, illustrated by Admira Wijaya and Cris Bolson published by Radical Comics. Moore’s story downplayed the more mythological aspects associated with the character and was more of a character study of a hardened warrior amidst the war, murder and deception of ancient Greece. It didn’t shy away from the brutality of ancient warfare as Moore, a comics veteran, didn’t want it to be prettified like a fantasy movie as Hercules is hired by the king of Thrace to train his army. Fans of the comic will pick up the iconic headdress which featured in the comic in the trailer and will also notice that in some spot on casting Dwayne Johnson is Hercules and this could easily become a high profile franchise for the former wrestler.
There could be trouble though as director Brett Ratner was the man behind X-Men Last Stand, which was memorable for the worst of reasons and the screenplay is from relative unknowns Ryan Condal and Evan Spiliotopoulos.
Whether the film sticks to the more gritty and brutal style of its source material or whether it will ironically be a prettified fantasy movie remains to be seen.
Place your bets now.