Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters opens this Friday, August 9 with a new director at the helm, Thor Freudenthal. The movie is the sequel to the 2010 Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief hit and follows the young demigod’s epic journey to fulfill his destiny. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing the director Thor Freudenthal along with 7 bloggers from around the country.
Thor is coming off directing the very successful Diary of Wimpy Kid movie. That said, he was clear that there were challenges in going from A Diary of a Wimpy Kid to making Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.
“It’s always tough to translate a book to screen simply because there are such different formats.” In the case of the Wimpy Kid, it was decided that it should be a friendship story between the Wimpy Kid, Greg Heffley and his best friend Rowley while Percy Jackson is a multi-hundred page epic making for tough choices on how to keep the pace to create a three act structure.
One key decision Thor talked about is the appearance of Kronos, who is an overarching villain that cuts across several books. It may be fine to talk about the villain in several books but that decision really doesn’t work in a movie in which the character is discussed as part of the prophecy impacting Percy.
This is very much a special effects movie but Thor indicated that he was most excited about seeing Tyson on the big screen because it was the most difficult to get done. In the end he was happy with actors’ performance and how he come across on screen.
Spoiler Alert: Nathan Fillian (Castle and Firefly) makes an appearance in the movie and I had to find out the backstory of how we was cast. Thor emphasized that he takes “full credit” for the casting of the cult fave. “I love Firefly and I was always a huge fan of comedy, and his pacing, his timing and he seems like great guy.” Thor called 20th Century Fox, met Fillian for coffee and the rest is history as they say.
Throughout the interview, you could hear the passion of the Director that he has for the characters and the story and certainly shows in providing a film with a fun, sense of adventure into the magical world of Percy Jackson.
Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters opens this Friday, August 9 in a theatre near you.
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Disclosure: NYC Single Mom was not compensated for this post.
