IT’S TIME FOR THE IMMORTALS TO FIGHT FOR GREEK EPICS IMMORTALITY

A hyper-stylized R-rated action film with bold speeches, beautiful women, angry men, angrier Gods and a whole lot of violence, “Immortals”, is ready to bring the latest epic war between ancient Greek Gods at theaters everywhere this fall. Looks like it falls between “300” and “Clash of the Titans”, which can be a good thing, the film was directed by Tarsem Singh who is most well known for his fantastic visual style in his two previous features—“The Cell” and “The Fall”—music videos, and commercial work. Visually, Tarsem says the film will be "Caravaggio meets Fight Club. It’s a really hardcore action film done in Renaissance painting style". Don't expect historical accuracy either, Tarsem floated the idea back in 2009 that the film will be partly contemporary - "Renaissance time with electricity" he calls it, much like the way Julie Taymor blended 30's-era technology into her ancient Rome-set film adaptation of "Titus Andronicus".
It also provides an opportunity to see the new Superman Henry Cavill who will tackle the role of Theseus, one of ancient Greek founder-heroes, like Perseus, Cadmus, or Heracles, all of whom battled and overcame foes that were identified with an archaic religious and social order. However, though Cavill is playing Theseus, this is not an adaptation of that particular story with the labyrinth and the minotaur. Scribes Chris and Vlas Parlapanides claimed that the film will be an original piece that will interweave various story elements from Greek mythology against both the personal story of the main character, and the backdrop of the war between the Titans and the Olympian Gods - a setting many video gamers will be familiar with thanks to the "God of War" series. The supporting cast also includes a surprisingly young batch of Greek gods including Welsh theatre and film actor Luke Evans as Zeus, "Twilight" & Calvin Klein model Kellan Lutz as Poseidon, Aussie soap babe Isabel Lucas as Athena, and Corey Sevier as Apollo. Other roles consist more of seasoned veterans including Mickey Rourke, John Hurt and Stephen Dorff, while "Slumdog Millionaire" actress Freida Pinto is the female lead.

As a power-mad king razes ancient Greece in search of a legendary weapon, a heroic young villager rises up against him in a thrilling quest as timeless as it is powerful. The brutal and bloodthirsty King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) and his murderous Heraklion army are rampaging across Greece in search of the long lost Bow of Epirus. With the invincible Bow, the king will be able to overthrow the Gods of Olympus and become the undisputed master of his world. With ruthless efficiency, Hyperion and his legions destroy everything in their wake, and it seems nothing will stop the evil king's mission. As village after village is obliterated, a stonemason named Theseus (Henry Cavill) vows to avenge the death of his mother in one of Hyperion's raids. When Theseus meets the Sybelline Oracle, Phaedra (Freida Pinto), her disturbing visions of the young man's future convince her that he is the key to stopping the destruction. With her help, Theseus assembles a small band of followers and embraces his destiny in a final desperate battle for the future of humanity.

Between gods and men, the fact begins:

# The film was previously named “Dawn of War” and “War of the Gods” before being officially named “Immortals”.

# Tarsem Singh said that he is planning an action movie using Renaissance painting styles. He then goes on to say that he is "Basically, “Caravaggio” meets “Fight Club”. It's a really hardcore action film done in Renaissance painting style. I want to see how that goes; it's turned into something really cool. I'm going for a very contemporary look on top of that so I'm kind of going with, you know, Renaissance time with electricity. So it's a bit like Baz Luhrman doing “Romeo + Juliet” in Mexico; it's just taking a particular Greek tale and half (make it comtemporary) and telling it."

# Although producer Mark Canton previously worked on “300,” “Immortals” is not just a redux of Zack Snyder’s speed-ramping spectacular. “Immortals” is directed by Tarsem Singh, a filmmaker who indicated that first and foremost he didn’t just want to shoot everything in a green room, as Snyder did, when approaching the epic, mythical tale of a battle between gods and men. “There were a lot more physical sets than ‘300,’” he said. “Because I needed the actors to interact with things more, I needed the sets to be existing.” In fact, Singh said he shot certain sequences multiple times using different techniques to make sure that it looked and felt as visceral as possible, starting with actors on a set, then with CGI characters in a virtual environment, and finally with both of those sequences overlaid on top of each other.

# King Hyperion is loosely based on King Minos, the king of Crete and the villain in the myth of Theseus. Hyperion is a fisherman who discovers the corpse of a dead Titan, becomes possessed by the titan's blood and leads his army across Greece to free the imprisoned titans.

# Luke Evans said that there was actually a good reason why he and his fellow actors were chosen instead of older actors for their mythical roles. “We left the ‘ancient voice’ to John Hurt,” he said of his character Zeus’ necessary gravitas. “It was difficult – we’re used to seeing Zeus as an old man. So this was a new slant on the role. But as Tarsem said, if you were a god, you would want to be in the prime of your life.”

# The film’s use of 3D enhances its storytelling, even if Tarsem isn’t completely sold on the technology’s longevity. Discussing the subjective importance of 3D in the storytelling process, Singh said, “I think it’s an aesthetic call. Maybe in 30 or 40 years we’ll see it differently. But there’s lots of inherent problems and I don’t think that current 3D will age well.”

Immortalize your calendar on:

Nov 10, 2011: Greece, Russia, Thailand

Nov 11: Brazil, Canada, Czech Rep, Finland, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Turkey, UK, USA

Nov 17: Hong Kong, Singapore

Nov 23: France

Nov 24: Australia

Nov 25: Sweden

Dec 01: Portugal

Sources: Wikipedia, IMDB – Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures