COMMENT | A producer of the 'Clash of the Titans' movies says that the planned third instalment is not going to happen "at this point."
Basil Iwanyk produced both the 2010 'Clash of the Titans,' a remake of the 1981 Ray Harryhausen movie, and its 2012 sequel 'Wrath of the Titans.' Sam Worthington took the lead as Greek hero Perseus in both, doing battle with all manner of gods and monsters, and it had been publicly declared that they intended to make it a trilogy.
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Asked by IGN whether a third 'Clash of the Titans' was still on the cards, Iwanyk replied, "Not at this point, but you never know. In terms of 'Clash of the Titans 3,' it's one of those situations where we've seen it a million times; a movie will kind of float away and then come back when it's supposed to come back.
"You'd think that there was three and a half, four years of nonstop 'Clash of the Titans' activity, and I think it is, "Okay, what's the new idea? How do you make it fresh?" You know, a lot of movies have come out in that world, including 'Immortals' and '300.' So there will be a time and place where someone will come up with a great idea for it and how to make it feel different and fresh from the previous ones. Then we'll hopefully move forward on that."
However, Iwanyk did give a few hints about a new project set to shoot in early 2014, which may have echoes of that epic fantasy monster-fighting world: 'Gods of Egypt,' from director Alex Proyas ('The Crow,' 'I, Robot.')
"We're shooting the entire thing on green screen in Sydney. But it'll be photo-real green screen, not stylized like '300.' People will wonder, like, "Where the hell did you shoot that?" And it's a lot more of an adventure movie, like 'The Thief of Bagdad,' those old movies. 'Clash' was a very serious movie. 'Gods of Egypt' I think is a lot more 'Raiders [of the Lost Ark]' and 'Pirates [of the Caribbean]' than it is those movies. But it's an incredible world. So yeah, that goes [before cameras] on March 23rd."
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It's not all that surprising that interest in a third 'Titans' film is not too high. 2010's 'Clash' (from Louis Leterrier, subsequent director of 'Now You See Me') was controversially given a subpar last minute 3D conversion to cash in on the format's popularity after 'Avatar;' while this no doubt boosted its box office takings (just over $493 million worldwide), it did result in some disgruntled audiences.
Nor was the dodgy post-conversion the film's only problem, as some similarly hasty re-editing and reshoots left the narrative in a (pun intended) ungodly mess. Still, the presence of some impressive giant scorpions and a gargantuan razor-toothed Kraken went some way to make up for this.
Meanwhile, 2012's 'Wrath' (from Jonathan Liebesman, director of the upcoming 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' reboot) performed less impressively, taking a little over $305 million.
Are you keen to see a third 'Titans' film, or do you think the series has already run its course? Let us know in the comments.
