Christopher Nolan to adapt Homer's The Odyssey(!)

[AndyDursin]

That's how I felt! It looks like a less entertaining TROY with what will be a vastly inferior score.

[mkaroly]

On FB someone posted a meme that basically said the definitive version of The Odyssey has already been filmed. It is called, "O Brother Where Art Thou?". Lol...need to watch that one again.

[Paul MacLean]

On FB someone posted a meme that basically said the definitive version of The Odyssey has already been filmed. It is called, "O Brother Where Art Thou?". Lol...need to watch that one again.

I'm also wondering if Nolan is going to go the "Troy" route and play it all as "realism" -- i.e. the cyclops just a big tall guy who's blind in one eye, and Ogygia just an island of good-looking girls who distract Odysseus for a couple of weeks.

[AndyDursin]

Based on his comments it sounds like that's exactly what we're going to get.

“One of the things I needed to crack was how to approach mythological elements in a sort of real-world way. The big breakthrough creatively in thinking about the gods was that everything that is now explained by science was once supernatural. Lightning, thunder, earthquakes, volcanoes... people are literally seeing gods everywhere; not even the evidence of gods, they're seeing the actions of gods. I don't want to say too much about it beyond indicating that yes, the evidence of the supernatural is all around these people. It's very much part of their lives. And I think it's quite a lot of fun to tap into that.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/c ... .%E2%80%9D

[AndyDursin]

This aint yo Daddy's Odyssey!!

[Paul MacLean]

Is it such a stretch to assume Helen of Troy looked like Lapita Nyong'o...when you consider that Shakespeare was a "black Jewish woman"...

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/shak ... 68036.html

Shakespeare was actually a black Jewish woman, new book claims

Feminist historian identifies Tudor poet Emilia Bassano as true author whose identity was hidden by literary establishment

William Shakespeare was a "black Jewish woman" whose work was stolen by a semi-literate businessman, a controversial new book has claimed.

Feminist historian Irene Coslet argues the real genius behind the world's most famous plays was Emilia Bassano, a Tudor court poet who used "Shakespeare" as a pen name.

According to The Real Shakespeare, written by the LSE graduate, Bassano's true authorship was covered up in favour of William Shakespeare, an "uneducated interloper" from Stratford-upon-Avon.

Ms Coslet contends that Elizabethan society preferred the narrative of a "white" male genius to acknowledging a black female playwright.

Bassano had intimate connections to the theatre world as mistress of Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon - Elizabeth I's Lord Chamberlain and patron of Shakespeare's own troupe, the Lord Chamberlain's Men.

Literary scholars have long speculated she could be the "Dark Lady" immortalised in Shakespeare's sonnets.

No one during the Bard's lifetime ever disputed his authorship. Even his theatrical rival Ben Jonson praised him as a genius "for all time".

Yet conspiracy theories have persisted for centuries, with some suggesting Christopher Marlowe contributed to the enormous body of work.

Shakespeare's modest origins - a glover's son from Warwickshire with limited schooling - have fuelled doubts about how he achieved such literary brilliance.

Ms Coslet tackles this directly in her book, writing: "Historians have not managed to explain how the Stratford man, a semi-illiterate moneylender, managed to gain such a level of erudition."

By contrast, she argues Bassano's "diverse identity" as both Jewish and Moorish - someone of north African descent with Venetian family connections - provided the cultural knowledge evident in the plays.

The author declares that "English-speaking world has a mother with a multi-cultural identity", calling Bassano the "mother of a civilisation".

While acknowledging that surviving portraits depict Bassano as fair-skinned, Ms Coslet suggests her complexion was deliberately lightened to conform to period beauty ideals.

Speaking to The Telegraph, the historian said: "If Shakespeare was a female of colour, this would draw attention to issues of peace and justice in society.

"What if women had a pivotal role and a civilising impact in history, but they have been silenced, belittled and erased from the dominant narrative?"

This isn't the first time Bassano has been proposed as the true Shakespeare.

Last year, American novelist Jodi Picoult made similar claims in By Any Other Name, suggesting Shakespeare "sold his name to people who wanted to hide themselves as writers".

Bassano was the first woman in England to publish original poetry under her own name.

Mainstream scholarship maintains Shakespeare was born in Stratford in 1564 to a glove-maker father. Records show he attended grammar school locally before marrying 26-year-old Anne Hathaway when he was just 18. By 1592, Shakespeare had established himself in London's theatre world. He died in 1616 - nearly three decades before Bassano's own death.

[mkaroly]

Sigh...her agenda is so clear it doesn't even take effort to find it. Aside from sounding ridiculous (and being ridiculous, IMO), it seems grossly anachronistic. Pass on this "historical" reconstruction by that "historian".

And I honestly have no desire to see The Odyssey...will stick with the actual poem and the 20+ minute piece from Symphony X as far as an "adaptation".

[Monterey Jack]

It's funny how people made #NolanSoWhite complaints about the lack of POC in Dunkirk and Oppenheimer (despite being set in historical periods where there absolutely would not have been any POC representation), and yet when Nolan capituated with The Odyssey...people complain even more.

[AndyDursin]

Then why not have Idris Elba play Oppenheimer? I mean, either make a historical movie -- or don't. Set in the Greek world -- or don't.

Unfortunately this movie is already full of stunt casting like RAPPER Travis Scott and Elliot Page who can't get work anywhere else. Throw in Spider-Man and MJ and it's already like a FAST AND THE FURIOUS movie, with severe commercial concessions being made if nothing else.

I have nothing against Lupita who is lovely and -- unlike much of the cast -- a truly talented actress, but it's kind of like...what's the point of this exercise?

Either way, what I find more offensive than Lupita playing Helen is that this movie simply doesn't look very impressive from any of its released trailers thus far.

I mean, has anyone watched these trailers and gotten the feeling this thing is going to be some revolutionary box-office spectacular? All of the fantasy elements look like they've been axed. It looks like a more "realistic" -- and pretentiously "serious" -- version of 300, so it won't be as much fun. And almost certainly will have a far worse score than TROY, which looks better and better as we are distanced from it.

Doomcock, as usual, nailed this a couple of weeks ago when people started talking about the rapper being in the movie:

[Eric W.]

I have no interest in seeing this.