The world of Directing: Chris Columbus' adventures of turning Greek Mythology into modern day Film

     Directing is a field that has always fascinated me. Having the opportunity to take a story you love and being able to pull it out of your imagination and create it visually in front of your eyes to entertain others just seems like such a wonderful thing to experience and be a part of. So, I decided to delve into that realm of production even further by exploring the work of one of my favorite directors in one of my favorite, guilty pleasure movies.
     Most, non film-versed people will undoubtedly think of the explorer who stumbled upon America in 1492 when they hear the name Chris (or Christopher) Columbus. Now, for me, when I hear that name, the director of Mrs. Doubtfire, Home Alone, Rent, and the first two Harry Potter films come to mind. Not to mention having produced numerous other movies such as The Help, both Night At The Museums, and both Fantastic Four films as well. Oh, and did I mention he wrote The Goonies? But, one of my personal favorite films he directed isn't as big. Honestly, it only did so-so in theaters.
     Being able to adapt a book into a film is a feat that I applaud any director for. It's difficult to interpret it as your own, as well as try to reach the expectations the fans of the book have. And, although Chris Columbus' adaptation of the New York Times bestselling novel "Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lighting Thief" wasn't as ground-breakingly popular as his work on the Harry Potter films, I still believe that he did a miraculous job directing, and turning the first installment of a beloved Young Adult series into an entertaining film.

     Whenever I go to see a film that is based off a book (more specifically, based off of a book I have read), I always tell myself that a book and a movie are two completely different art forms, and should be treated as such. And thus, when I went to go see Percy Jackson in theaters, the things I usually would be nit-picky about in relation to the consistency of the book I realized were actually just directorial decisions that Columbus had made. And as I further researched those decisions for my paper, and through the things I have learned in this class, I have realized--and now appreciate far more--why those decisions were made.
     The whole idea of the film is that the world of Ancient Greek Mythology is still alive and well today. That the gods and goddess' still exist and rule, and sometimes, they come down from Mount Olympus (now located over New York City instead of Greece) and have relationships with mortals. The children they produce from these relationships are half-human, half-god; A demigod. The story follows Percy Jackson, a troubled kid with multiple learning disabilities such as Dyslexia and ADHD, and his journey discovering that his father is in fact the Greek god of water, Poseidon. That, and the fact that Zeus' master lightning bolt has been stolen, and the blame is somehow being placed on Percy. We follow his adventures as he winds up at a camp created specifically for demigods, and his quest to find Zeus' bolt and bring it  back to clear his name.
     The story initially came to Chris Columbus through his daughter. He states in a featurette on the movie's dvd that, "My daughter Isabella was reading the books and she told me I should read them. So I read them and I realized that the hero of the book was dyslexic, just like my daughter. And it was a very emotional moment because I became very passionate about it...there are all these kids in America who suffer from dyslexia and I thought, wouldn't it be great to empower those kids with a story about a kid who has dyslexia who is essentially a bit of a superhero himself, the son of a god, a demigod". He also found the concept to be utterly fascinating and nothing like any film he'd seen before. "We've had like, 300 and Troy, movies that have dabbled in Greek mythology but there's never been an opportunity to create [For example] a living, breathing real-life Medusa with seventy five live snakes as her hair" (lovefilm.com).
     And so, he pitched the idea to a screenwriter friend of his, Craig Titley, who also coincidentally happened to be getting a Phd. in Mythology at the time, and thus, they started to work on the screenplay. He said it was one of the most enjoyable experiences he's had with a film and that, "He was a great director, who was also a competent writer who knew the movie he wanted to make, and it was jus a fun, fun world to play in" (FOX Movie Channel). Even the actual author of the books was excited for Columbus to be directing the film. "I could not have imagined anyone better suited to the job," author Rick Riordan states in the featurette of the dvd, "He's got such a great track record of family-friendly films that I think he's absolutely the perfect guy to take Percy Jackson from the page and onto the screen".
     Now came the hard part, trying to turn a book into a film. Obviously, there were things that needed to change. In the book, the lead characters are only eleven years old, and yet they go out and do all of these miraculous things. "I couldn't conceive of doing some of these scenes where they basically have to train to become warriors, with eleven year olds and wooden swords," Columbus said, "I thought, it's just gonna be a little cheesy. What do we do to give those scenes some guts, some depth, some real edge?" (Empire Magazine). And so, it was changed in the script that the lead characters were now going to be around sixteen or seventeen, rather than eleven. This not only made the film seem more realistic, but also opened channels up for the age level of the jokes, references, and extent of the romantic relationships within the movie, thus, making it more entertaining.

The finished Hydra scene from the film

     They also changed around a lot of the scenes from the book to make them more relatable to the audiences who would watch it. One main scene is when Percy and his friends must battle off a five-headed Hydra while in Nashville. Now, in the book, this scene takes place on the St. Louis Arch, and, instead of a Hydra, they are faced with a Chimera, which is a part dog, part goat, part serpent-like creature. "So, to make it more relatable to the kids watching this film, it was Chris' decision to change the Chimera to a Hydra." Titley says (FOX Movie Channel). This way, it was a monster audiences might have heard of, and could identify with more, either through bits of mythology they might've learned in school, or even from the Disney movie Hercules, in which he battles a Hydra as well.
     Now, another (and maybe one of the biggest) directorial decision Columbus was faced with was casting the parts of the three main leads, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. The entire five-book Percy Jackson series had been out for a while by this point in 2008/2009. They were beloved characters that tweens and teens and even adults identified with. They wanted to see their heroes come to life and be portrayed the way they were supposed to. But, yet again, directional changes overwhelmed the die-hard fans wants. The only one of the three main characters that stayed precisely to the books description was it's main hero, Percy Jackson. Now, to find these three actors, Columbus took a different approach rather than just letting the world know and having any actor try out. He came into the production with choices for actors based off of some of their previous work he had seen.

From L to R: Brandon T. Jackson, Chris Columbus,
Logan Lerman, and Alexandra Daddario

     His first choice for the film's main character was Logan Lerman, a still fairly unknown actor, whose supporting role in the film 3:10 to Yuma blew Columbus away. So, when Logan came in for a screentest, and nailed the character of Percy right on the head, Columbus knew he had found just the right guy. "I built the cast around him...trying to find people that had chemistry with him" Columbus stated (Empire Magazine). For Percy's best friend and sidekick, Grover, Columbus initially thought of Brandon T. Jackson, whose part in Tropic Thunder had him in hysterics. This was also a major change from the book. Originally, Grover is a scrawny, awkward caucasian boy. But for the film, he was cast as African American, and was much more gutsy and confident, providing a lot of the film's comic relief. Now, finding the female lead of Annabeth was a bit harder. Initially, Annabeth is a blonde-haired, cute and sassy New Yorker, but, for the movie she became a strong and confident, very self-assured young woman. There was no one specific Columbus had in mind for the role, and so went on to audition many young Hollywood starlets. But his problem fell with their appearance. "I thought, how in God's name am I going to create a [convincing] warrior who can fight [while she] looks like she hasn't had a cheeseburger in ten years?"(Empire Magazine). But eventually, the talent of Alexandra Daddario came to their graces, and when the three were put together for a screentest, "There was just a tremendous amount of chemistry." Columbus praised over the young actors (Empire Magazine).
     While the leads were all played by young and unknown actors, Columbus decided to throw all the big name actors in as secondary characters. Pierce Brosnan plays Chiron, a Centaur as well as Percy's mentor, and Uma Thurman plays Medusa, while Steve Coogan plays the god of death, Hades--just to name a few. I feel that this directorial decision was a good one on his part. Letting the the unknown actors shine as the leads, but have the big-name ones there to support and hold up the rest of the cast, as well as be a pull for the adult audience bringing their kids to the film to become more invested in it.
     Watching the movie again with these thoughts in mind made it a much more enjoyable experience. Knowing that so much thought and time and care went into his directing and his choices in creating the film, while still keeping the essence of it close to the beloved books, was a phenomenal feat that Chris Columbus handled with such grace. It was eye-opening to delve into the world of the director and see exactly how their brain works and how these things all fall together artistically. And, although they signed on a different director and only let Columbus be a producer of the sequel, The Sea of Monsters, that has just started filming in the past week or so, I know his influence on the first film will definitely reverberate into this one, and all of the others that may possibly come after it.