JasonAndTheArgonauts Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I'm digging the Greek revival in Hollywood -- I know I should sniff at it as an empty trend that cashes in on 300, but I'm just not hard hearted enough. (And I continuously hope that they'll forget about the dumb parts of Troy and greenlight The Odyssey with Sean Bean in the lead.)

According to Variety, the latest Greek myth to be "remade" is Jason and the Argonauts (shortened to the pithier The Argonauts), though I'm skeptical in calling any story that's been around for thousands of years a remake. Jason hasn't sailed on the bigscreen since 1963, when he was assisted so famously by Ray Harryhausen. (There was a television miniseries in 2000 -- that was such a weird era for CGI mythology.) This time, he'll be doing his sailing for 20th Century Fox, and the movie will be written and produced by Zak Penn.

As you likely remember from your school days, this is the story of Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece. Charged with its retrieval by the unpleasant king (and usurper) Pelias, Jason assembles a great group of heroes (including the legendary Heracles) known as the Argonauts. Naturally, they had all kinds of crazy adventures, encountered horrible monsters, and loved a lot of women.

Penn is writing an original take on the Greek epic -- but I imagine all the standbys like the Harpies, the Sirens, and the Symplegades will be present. And I fully expect that it will have a 300 flavor, at least in the costuming and the muscles sported by Jason and company. Just about every studio has a Greek movie they're shoving into production (including that much discussed 300 prequel/sequel/whatever), so they're all going to be vying to outdo each other. At this point, my money is on Anabasis and this one, if only for Penn might bring a bit of X2 goodness to it. What about you?

I constantly complain about modern special effects, how CGI creatures don't look realistic enough, but I have to admit this is pretty hypocritical of me. I love the work of effects legend Ray Harryhausen, and his models were never believable. There was a lot more inventiveness and craftsmanship in his effects, though, and there's no denying that the films he worked on have a creative spark that many modern fantasy films lack. Sometimes I think that my preference for model work over CGI has to do with their tangible appearance, but then that doesn't explain my forgiveness for the composite shots in Harryhausen films, which typically appeared as flat as today's worst CGI.

Anyway, despite our now having films with great computer effects like Jurassic Park and Peter Jackson's King Kong, Harryhausen will never be forgotten. Earlier this year, the 86-year-old received a well-deserved George Pal Memorial Award at the Saturn Awards and he was celebrated in the documentary The Sci-Fi Boys, which screened at Tribeca. Now, thanks to YouTube, someone is presenting all of Harryhausen's creatures and spaceships in a chronologically edited montage. Check it out below: