Warner Bros. Finds Director for Big Screen Version of Homer's 'The Odyssey'

A solid decade ago Warner Bros. dove head first in the Greek warrior poems of Homer with Troy (based on The Illiad), a sprawling and wildly expensive ($177M) effort that starred Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Diane Kruger, Orlando Bloom, and basically a cast of thousands. It was an impressive effort that made about $500M despite critics largely bashing it, although I personally love that film with a passion and will defend it forever. And apparently Warner Bros. is also still quite keen on it because they are revisiting the period by tackling a big screen film based on Homer's The Odyssey, setting Russian director Fedor Bondarchuk to helm it.

Bondarchuk, who showed a flash of technological wizardry with his war film Stalingrad, will direct what is being title simply Odysseus, based on the Greek king (played by Sean Bean in Troy) and his incredible journey home to Ithaca after the events of the Trojan War. Odyssseus' decade-long trek sees him encountering a number of perils and fantastic creatures, including a run-in with a giant cylops, the infamous sirens,sea monsters, and more. And really that was just the beginning of things for him as the fight isn't over once he reaches Ithaca's shores.

This probably won't be considered a Troy sequel or anything like that (darnit!!) so we likely aren't going to see Bean in the title role. But the hiring of Bondarchuk, a guy who really did an amazing job on Stalingrad with limited resources, is reason enough to be excited. [Deadline]