Harry Hamlin had exactly the proper non-muscular physique and soft curly locks to play Perseus, the sensitive hero of Clash of the Titans. But that was 1981 and Desmond Davis. For 2009 you need someone more trim, more militaristic, more 300. Enter Sam Worthington, already on the cusp of having people almost able to remember his name, thanks to the upcoming Terminator: Salvation and James Cameron’s Avatar.
You read the headline and thought that Arnie was involved, didn’t you? Suckers.
I remain relatively ignorant of Worthington’s abilities. My only exposure to him was through Geoffrey Wright’s 2006 MacBeth, which I didn’t particularly care for. In fact, I hadn’t even reconciled that MacBeth‘s Worthington and Avatar‘s were one and the same until recently. That said, he wasn’t key to what I thought failed about Wright’s take on Shakespeare, and the word coming out of both of his upcoming films is strong.
My only hope is that the Clash re-do, scripted by Lawrence Kasdan for Louis Leterrier to direct, retains some of the playfulness of the original. I’m good with using 300’s techniques to keep the budget viable, but I’d hate to see one of the more entertaining dives into the mythological pool become overly serious. I don’t expect that from Leterrier, but you never know.
5 comments
He's perfectly cast as a metal skeleton covered in living tissue, not so much in anything else. The best film he's been in is "Gettin' Square", but David Wenham steals that particular show despite being a secondary character. The range just doesn't seem to be there and his usual still-waters-run-deep schtick comes off more "still" than "deep"…like "inert".
Yer $hittin me, right?
A remake of Calsh of The Titans?!!!
OoooooOOH! Fer cryin out loud!
Is there any wonder I now find Asian cinema far superior to nearly EVERYTHING Hollywood even breaths on?
(Summer time machine blues is one of the BEST, funniest, films I've seen in AGES!).
HOLLYWOOD!!!!! MAKE AN ORIGINAL MOVIE ALREADY!!!!
Employ some *GASP* real writers with *shock!* IDEAS!
As said elsewhere, READ A BOOK!…
Commission a script and wow people with something ORIGINAL!!!
PLEEEEeeeeEEEEASE!!!
Posts like Mossadon's make me laugh. At what point did the Japanese (and Asian cinema in general) become a wealth of originality? Most of their stories are knock-offs of old, local fable and last time I checked, they can't stop going to the same well on their genre film. "Hey look, it is another film device that shoehorns ghosts into a story!". The aforementioned probably thinks John Woo introduced the double gun shootout [which he admits lifting from Spy vs. Spy] or the mech [first introduced to sci fi lexicon by Heinlen]. Enjoy Asian cinema for adding a new perspective. Don't try and laud them for a nonexistent penchant for originality.
"…or the Japanese, the mech…" I should say. I should be more concise if I am gonna rant.
Uhh, swamp guy? Woo says his inspiration for the scene in The Killer where Danny Lee and Chow Yun Fat come face to face in Sally Yeh's apartment is inspired by Spy vs. Spy – not the two-fisted gunfights.
And by Asian Cinema – Mossadon probably meant Thailand's burgeoning output, and the amazing things happening in Korea – as well as Japanese and HK cinema It's not all two guns and stringy-haired girl ghosts, as his reference to Summer Time Machine Blues explains – those are just things that American distributors think will find traction here.
That said, what difference does the remake…er, make? Now only will the original still exist – but we may end up with an actual decent special edition DVD of the original that, if done with enough respect, may heal Harryhausen's Clash of the Titans -related sore spot.
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