Zak Penn’s The Argonauts
Posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
20th Century Fox has hired Zak Penn to write and produce (along with John Davis) a big screen adaptation of the classic Greek tale of The Argonauts. In Greek mythology, the Argonauts were a band of sailing heroes ,who accompanied by Jason to Colchis in his quest for the Golden Fleece. The story has been previously adapted by Don Chaffey in 1963, and in 2000 for Hallmark television. Dreamworks is also developing a project with the same title, about a group of treasure hunters who discover the wreck of Jason’s mythological ship, and are somehow transported back in time to ancient Greece.
Zak Penn broke onto the scene with a huge spec Last Action Hero (this is before it was rewritten). He went on to pen PCU, Beyond Enemy Lines, and is credited with the story of X2. That credit lead to five years of comic/geek-related projects, some of which were extremely disappointing (X-Men: The Last Stand) or insulting (Electra), leading to the loss of geek fan support. He most recently won lone credit for The Incredible Hulk, and is currently linked to Marvel Studio’s upcoming adaptations of The Avengers and Captain America films.
Discuss: Do you think the story of the Argonauts will translate well into a big screen movie?
source: Variety
12th August, 4:07am
It should,because i haven’t seen a ship movie since SinbaD
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12th August, 4:14am
I haven’t seen the old original in a long ass time, and by long ass I mean 5 years or so, but what made me like it so much is the old school special effects, crappy skeleton figurines(stop motion was it?) Has a nostalgic feel to it. It definitely could work, judging from Zak Penn’s work it seems we wouldn’t have to worry about it being a Mummy 3….I didn’t see Electra, I’m not really a big fan of female superhero movies, unless I’m renting them from a porn shop.
12th August, 6:04am
It could - however, it almost certainly won’t.
12th August, 6:19am
Why not? I have reservations about Penn…but I feel as if they are only 50/50. He’s done some shoddy work in the past, but Incredible Hulk was slightly redeeming.
Jason and the Argonaughts was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid (don’t read into that. I’m only 24). It was an epic story, full of mythological creatures and crappy claymation shots.
With a larger budget, this storyline has the capability of being epic. I only hope that Penn will do it justice.
12th August, 6:28am
Yep, it has much potential. I can appeal to the “300″ crowd.
Of course, it can be totally cheap if done poorly.
12th August, 6:30am
With movies about superheroes, walking trees and hobbits, sinking ships and a whole host of others that have done phenomenal I think it is a safe bet to say that it can translate to film … the question is, does anyone believe this guy can pull off a screen write for something like this? I think so but in the end it will be the director that will make or break it.
12th August, 6:56am
Zak Penn wrote and starred in “Incident at Loch Ness”, which I think has an undeservedly low-profile, even though he so ably skewers himself through and through.
12th August, 1:08pm
Now that I look back I think the movie I was thinking of was Clash of the Titans. Has that been remade since?
12th August, 7:40pm
This is going to be bad. In some other person’s hands, maybe good. But this is going to be bad.
12th August, 10:01pm
If there is a writer capable of transforming one of the greatest mythological adventures into mediocre unoriginal movie script, it is Zak Penn.