We have witnessed the success of taking ancient godlike figures from Norse mythology and bringing them into the 21st Century in films like Thor and The Avengers but the stable of Greek gods and superheroes haven’t fared as well with mediocre box office by comparison. Some say the main reason is every film done on them keeps them stuck in antiquity, while updating the old gods to modern day interaction is proof positive that with the right writer, director and actors on board the great Greek heroes of ancient times can succeed on the big screen in our era. Keeping to the premise, which of the following legends of Greek mythology would you like see get an upgrade and brought to the modern age? You can pick up to THREE.
I think Hades can work as a misunderstood protagonist. He’s not evil, he just has an unpopular job. I think an interesting story would be him going up against the fates for interfering with free will. If someone is destined to do something evil and has no control over it, how is it justice to punish them for it? If Man is going to receive punishment they should have done something of their own volition to deserve it and you can’t have that with Fate messing up your life. You can make it a “feel good” story about the redemption of souls who are being punished for making one bad mistake in life that they truly regret.
Hephaestus could watch the Iron Man movies and realize he can make his own exo-suit to counter his lameness and use his new weapons to fight Ares for Aphrodite. He would try to win her love back until he realizes that she never loved him and only married him out of convenience. Then he has to decide if he wants vengeance or will he be the better god and move on (or both and fight against Ares because he stirs up trouble in the mortal realm and someone has to do something).
Prometheus has the role of the knowledge-bearer. A modern version would be him contemplating the ethical dilemmas of new developments. It doesn’t even have to be a fictional story, it could be like Futurescape on Science Channel with him as the narrator.
Remember that CW show from a few years back, Valentine? Aphrodite, Eros, Hercules and Hephaestus all live in LA, working for Aphrodite (Grace), who’s business is to bring destined soul mates together to increase real love in the world. She is still married to Ares but loves Hephaestus (and having an affair with him), and Circe and the Oracle were also in there.
There was some subplot about a lot of the other gods being diminished or dead because humans no longer believed in whatever gave them their powers, which was why Ares was still so powerful. But a sword that could kill gods was stolen from Hephaestus who’d stolen it from Circe, and while Ares had forced Hephaestus to make him armor that would protect him from the blade, he was angry with Ares for blackmailing Aphrodite by threatening to kill Hephaestus if Aphrodite ever tried to divorce him. So he created a flaw in the armor, but later when the goddess Bastet stole the blade from him, he tried to warn Ares about the flaw and was ignored.
Literally the very last scene of the show ever was Aphrodite crying over Ares’ body after Bastet beat him in a fight in the garden of the mansion. The show was canceled after 5 episodes had aired. They’d made 8 episodes and the only way to see the others was on BT Airways, and the story ends with no idea why gods were killing each other, or what evil was supposed trying to destroy them or anything.
If anything, the subplots with bringing lovers together was lame compared with what was going on in the story lines about the gods in modern times trying to maintain their relevance and keep their powers strong, and figure out what other powers are trying to kill them.
I don’t watch the CW.
I thought it was the other way around. Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus and having an affair with Ares. I wonder if they changed it for the show.
In the Champions RPG setting they also use the “gods get power from belief” meme and describe what some of the other gods are doing in modern times. Dionysus is some kind of psychedelic rock star who is worshiped whenever someone listens to his songs or something like that. They also have a villain who’s an avatar for a good Egyptian god Anubis. Anubis isn’t thrilled about having an villain be his main worshiper (but he can’t be choosy) so he makes the best of it by giving him lame powers so he became a training dummy for new heroes.
I think in the show Aphrodite and Hephaestus had gotten so angry with each other that they divorced so she could marry Ares, but centuries later, she’s come to realize that being with Ares isn’t all that great. Neither one is faithful to the other, but Ares gets some sort of petty satisfaction from having stolen her away in the first place, something about Love and War belonging together, and he doesn’t want to lose face by having her dump him and go back to Hephaestus. It was actually a throwaway line or two, but it made sense in passing 🙂
I like the idea of throwing folks with lame superpowers but delusions of grandeur into the path of heroes with better potential to be used as live training dummies. That just cracks me up.
“Neither one is faithful to the other”
These are the Greek gods. That should surprise no one. Unfortunately in ancient times (and modern) husbands were allowed to be unfaithful with little or no consequences but women were expected to remain absolutely faithful. I checked Hephaestus’s wikipedia page and he had some affairs too. I think Hera is the only one who stayed true to her spouse. Artemis doesn’t count since she’s supposed to be a chaste goddess.
I know, here’s a new show idea: Divine Divorce Court. The gallery is packed with divine couples arguing. The judge comes in and says, “Do we have any litigants who have a complaint OTHER than adultery?” Long pause as the courtroom goes silent. “Looks like it’s going to be one of those epochs.”
I’d love to see a show about Zeus, Poseidon and Hades coming of age against their parents the Titans. Seeing old Zeus set up flashbacks for some episodes, as well as currently placed episodes dealing with the repercussions of choices they made.
IIRC the Titans were eating their children. Zeus escaped by trickery. That could be a bit much even for HBO.
@Alverant, LOL. Let’s see, we’ve got Cronos eating his children because a prophecy said that one of his children would rise up and overthrow him just like he’d overthrown his father, and yet he stays married and keeps making new babies to eat, till one day Rhea decides to go vengeful and gives him a rock to eat instead of the newborn Zeus. No, no family issues there, none at all 🙂
All that said, we will get to see something similar to this with Norse gods once “The Almighty Johnsons” starts airing here in the US.
Move along, no sexual innuendo to see here. Stop snickering.
Me? Never. I am the very model of propriety and manners, and…
oh, the hell with it. We told all the snarky jokes last year when we first heard about the show. It’s a NZ produced show, so maybe they weren’t aware of the sausage-fest jokes that would abound once the show hit US shores? 4 brothers, last name Johnson, and throw in “Almighty”? I swear if one of them’s named Monty, then they’re just DARING people to say something so they can use the jokes in their writers room 😉
Uh-oh… just saw something come across the wire saying the show’s been canceled in NZ after 3 seasons. Wonder what that means for the US debut of Season 1?
Too bad there isn’t something like a BBC version for Australia or NZ shows. Who knows what we’re missing out on. We need a Sci-fi International channel for this. Make it internet based to avoid cable.
Does it say why it was canceled? Usually it’s ratings but it could be they reached a stopping point and the actors wanted too much. Or it could be censorship. Well there’s other ways to get the series.
I should learn to check wikipedia before speculating on something.
Anyway, this is why I don’t like getting involved in new sci-fi series because they have the tendency to end before their time. To be told your show is canceled over the radio. Keep it classy TV3.
no Medea? I’ll have to cast my lot for Athena then!