The legendary mythological epic of the Iliad and the Odyssey will be adapted by Antonin Baudry, director of the wolf songin the science fiction series.
Lately, the Pathé company seems ready to face challenges as ambitious as they are dangerous. After embarking on the adventure of a film diptych on The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (imagined as a response to the great American franchises, according to producer Dimitri Rassam), the production and distribution house has found an even more dangerous project. If the cloak and dagger genre is not easy to tame, it is very familiar to French cinema; But what about science fiction or, even worse, mythology?
It’s the crazy idea of Antonin Baudry, director of the very good The song of the wolfthan venturing into these two styles at the same time creating a French science fiction series that adapts theIliad and theOdyssey by Homer. Titled Ulysses, this project (if it materializes) seems almost too good to be possible. Although Pathé seems determined to compete with American standards, not everything should be decided on a simple matter of budget. Mythological stories have often led to pitfalls, even for Hollywood, and a colossal work like theOdyssey it has never been the subject of any serious attempt at adaptation from the 1954 film with Kirk Douglas.
The odyssey of a nuclear submarine
L’Iliad it was however brought to the screen once with some success thanks to the peplum Troy by Wolfgang Petersen, who nevertheless spared himself from all the fantastic aspects of the work (almost) to concentrate on a realistic and linear war plot. The mythology is in Homer of the order of lyricism and is as full of intrigue as it is difficult to learn from a classical narrative. It would therefore require a truly gigantic adaptation work to make it a modern television work. while remaining faithful to the genius of the text.
Furthermore, the contextual adjustment of theIliad and theOdyssey in the same lot it has never been made before in the history of the small or big screen. So far, facing either piece has always been quite difficult, if not impossible. The solution for Antonin Baudry is to concentrate throughout the story on a single protagonist in the person of Ulysses – and which therefore gives the series its name. A compromise that is undoubtedly necessary, especially in front of the monumental gallery of the protagonists of the Trojan War.
Ulysses on the big screen had the charisma of Sean Bean
The other adaptation challenge will be to turn the whole story into a sci-fi setting. The genre is very demanding and Pathé has every interest not to go back. However, when it comes to writing, Antonin Baudry should already have some good material to build upon. since this is not the first time that Ulysses (or the other heroes of theIliad) meets SF. If you thought about it right away Ulysses 31, the animated series of the 80s, you really hit the mark. But even more so, it is author Dan Simmons who has already clarified the concept in depth and breadth.
With his works Ilium et Olympuspublished in 2003 and 2005, the writer also used the great figures of Homer (and some of Shakespeare or Virgil) to recreate the mythical epic in a spatial and futuristic context. With such inspiration, it is surprising that Antonin Baudry or his collaborators, Axelle Boucaï (associate producer of The stars) and Alain Goldman (producer of The child, Edmund, I accuse), did not mention it. Axelle Boucaï, however, called the novels Dune by Frank Herbert among their references.
lost in space
Finally, while the whole venture risks being very complex, we remain extremely excited and curious to see where it will lead. France is not in the habit of offering science fiction or stories of this magnitude in series (or even film for that matter) format and is therefore a whole new horizon opening up to its television landscape. . The project is obviously only in its genesis then we will have to wait quite a while before we find out more.
–
