I'm currently into my fourth book of the Percy Jackson series. For those not familiar with Rick Riordan's work, this book series follows the adventures of a demi-god - son of Greek God Poseidon and a human lady - as he embarks on various quests in the US of today. It's a fun filled series with lots of characters and stories from Greek mythology though told with a more humorous and less ferocious tone. Now when you read the book you can see the makings of a movie franchise here. And given the popularity of the Harry Potter series which was about to come to a close, Percy Jackson was supposed to take over the mantle of meeting the aspirations of the young crowd to be part of quests in magical worlds where the young hero evades one danger after another, along with loyal friends and blossoming young love.
In case you missed it, the first movie titled after the book Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief was released in early 2010. It was a dud! While it did earn $226 million in worldwide ticket sales, this comes no way near the mark set by Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the first of the Harry Potter series - $975 million! The studios haven't given up on the series - the first one would have made some profit after all - and the second movie Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters is set for a release in the second half of this year. I am hopeful that they will get it right this time around so that this too does not go down the drain as many such movie adaptions of popular books have. Maybe the mistakes have been understood. Or maybe in the most bizarre of circumstances someone from the movie sets would end up reading this blog and understand how such movies need to be made.
a) Get your casting right. That's what I think Harry Potter movies got bang on. You are bringing to life what so many readers have created in their heads and cannot see them any other way. So let the big guy in the book be big, let the blonde be blonde, the charmer be the charmer. Let not Tom Cruise play Jack Reacher.
b) Make it on a larger scale. Like the Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings series. The ones with the franchise potential are largely fantasy based books like was the case with Eragon and Inkheart. But if you don't create this grand larger-than-life feel around it, it ain't gonna bring second-time viewers.
c) Create it with a heart. Famous books aren't only about narration of a story. They have an underlying theme. They talk about strength and character many times without explicitly stating it. That needs to get showcased in the script that is written. You really need a fan somewhere in the writing team or production house to understand what the story is actually all about.
d) Dig in for the right director. This isn't just another movie. The way a J.J. Abrams can bring back Star Trek, you need the right man to care enough about the movie to build on what the books have already created.
e) Advertise. You already have a fan base ready, thanks to the books. Seek them out and get them interested. Get your trailers right so that it gets them talking. And then they'll drag in the non-book fans too. It's a shame how some of these movies just came and disappeared, hardly creating a buzz amongst even the fans of the books.
It's sad the way some mediocre movie making has led to the demise of potential movie franchises that could have been generated from these books - Eragon, Inkheart, Golden Compass, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Alex Cross, possibly now even Jack Reacher. Maybe there will be reboots and improved efforts somewhere in time, to bring these movies back on the big screens in the manner which they deserve. Until then, the talks of bringing life into a book series by creating a movie franchise around it will be listened to with some joy and some trepidation.
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