Lionsgate has enlisted the creative team behind The Hunger Games franchise to adapt Homer’s The Odyssey for the big screen.
According to Deadline, the director Francis Lawrence, writer Peter Craig and producer Nina Jacobson have been assembled for an epic retelling of the classic poem. The plan is for production to begin after promotion for the final Hunger Games film, Mockingjay – Part 2, has ended.
The project has been fast-tracked, with Lionsgate hoping to continue the blockbuster success they’ve had with The Hunger Games by focusing on further large-scale films. The project reportedly began when Erik Feig, the co-president of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, pitched the idea to Lawrence in Paris while they worked on Mockingjay.
As well as directing three Hunger Games films, Lawrence also directed I Am Legend and Constantine; Peter Craig also wrote the script for The Town and is working on upcoming sequels Top Gun 2 and Bad Boys 3; and Nina Jacobson also produced One Day and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
The Homeric epic, which follows Odysseus on his journey home after the fall of Troy, has influenced the plots of films including Big Fish and O Brother, Where Art Thou?
