How interested are we in a
Clash of the Titans sequel? Not very, really. Do I speak for everyone when I say that I pretty much loathed every ounce of the mind-numbing CGI fested original this Summer - and the idea of giving up two further hours of my life to this franchise is less appealing than a drip to the dentist?
THR say Warner Bros. have set
Jonathan Liebesman, who has topped
their wishlist since June 11th - to direct
Clash of the Titans 2 early next year for Warner Bros/Legendary Pictures. Although it's encouraging that there's been a director change, I must warn you that there's little chance that Liebesman is going to alter the heavy CGI mindset of the series so far. This guy is someone who has extensive green screen history on
Darkness Falls, TCM: The Beginning - and his upcoming
Battle: Los Angeles (which actually looks like a cool movie) - so we know he's gonna share much of the same philisophy on this universe as Louis "I keep dropping the ball" Letterier. Reading between the lines of THR, it seems that Liebesman's work on Battle: Los Angeles and his enthusiasm for Greek Mythology (he's been trying for a few years to make an
Odysseus movie at the studio) has convinced WB to greenlight the project after they started getting cold feet on how the original
underperformed domestically, and didn't win the hearts and minds of those who saw it. I'm sure the thought of losing lead
Sam Worthington for a rival studio's blockbuster also played a part in it mind you. Thankfully, Clash 2 will be shot in 3-D rather than cheaply post-tinkered with. And
Greg Berlanti (Green Lantern),
Dan Mazeau (The Fash) and
David Leslie Johnson (Red Riding Hood) have all worked on the screenplay, a clear upgrade from mere mortals of the original to the demi-God scribes at Warner Bros. Not quite the Zeus figure of Chris Nolan's team but it's a move in the right direction.
Now if Liebesman can cut down on the throw-a-way monster appearances and can spend a little bit more time developing an interesting scenario for each sequence - if he can find better use of
Liam Neeson and
Ralph Fiennes and the rest of the Gods - and hopefully get something of a performance out of Worthington and
Gemma Arteton - then maybe we'll start to take a little notice.