Louis Leterrier’s 2010 Clash Of The Titans remake was lambasted by critics for many things, none the least, the rushed conversion of the film to 3D in order to cash in on the craze for the format sparked just a few months earlier with James Cameron’s Avatar. It turns out, not even the director was happy with the treatment his film received and in an interview with Huffington Post, he spelled out how he was pressured into having the film converted to 3D by the studio.

It was famously rushed and famously horrible. It was absolutely horrible, the 3D. Nothing was working, it was just a gimmick to steal money from the audience. I’m a good boy and I rolled with the punches and everything, but it’s not my movie. “Clash of the Titans” is not my movie. And ultimately that’s why I didn’t do the sequel.

Leterrier has gone on record before about his objections to the filming being converted to 3D, but not quite as frankly as this quote however.

Granted, I found that Clash had a number of problems before we even get around to discussing the 3D. Most of them stem for the film’s screenplay which was just a mess. Leterrier admits that the script wasn’t finished when the film started production, a problem he also encountered on his previous film, The Incredible Hulk, for Marvel.

I’ve started movies without screenplays both on “Clash” and on “Hulk” and that is tremendously stressful, because you have a tendency to overcompensate with effects. You haven’t tested it in your head. You didn’t run it over and over again and covered all of the plot holes and figure it out.

Leterrier’s latest film, Now You See Me, opens this Friday.

He brought to life everything from Mighty Joe Young to the Medusa of Greek mythology and was perhaps best known for animating the seven skeletons that did battle with the legendary Jason in 195-’s Jason And The Argonauts. But the hands that created those magical movie moments has stilled. Ray Harryhausem, the special effects genius who was the unexcelled master of stop-motion animation techniques, has died today in London at the age of 92.

Through the 1950s and `60s, Harryhausen’s expertiese brought to life many a movie monster through the process known as stop motion animation, the subtle manipulation of models that are photographed film frame-by-film frame. When the film is run at normal speed the illusion is created that the models are actually moving. While there were other stop-motion technicians, none of them approached Harryhausen’s detail-intensive level of realism.

It was as a teenager that Harryhausen’s interest in special effects was ignited when he and lifelong friend, and future science-fiction grand master, Ray Bradbury saw Willis O’Brien’s King Kong. Harryhausen sought out O’Brien, who took the teenager under his wing. Following World War Two, during which he served in Frank Capra’s film unit, Harryhausen was hired by O’Brien to work on the film Mighty Joe Young. The film would earn an Academy Award for its special effects.

While he also worked on the films The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953), It Came From Beneath The Sea (1955) and Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (1956), it was the series of mythologically-based fantasy adventure films featuring the likes of Sinbad the Sailor and Jason and the Argonauts that Harryhausen is best known for. In addition to the skeletons of Jason And The Argonauts, he also brought to life the giant two-headed roc of The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad (1958), the centaur and the griffin from The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad (1974) and Medusa and the kracken from the original Clash Of The Titans (1981).

But Harryhausen’s work did not just thrill generations of movie buffs. It also served as an inspiration to a number of the biggest names in genre filmmaking today including Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and James Cameron. Additionally, modern day effects technicians like Phil Tippet (the original Star Wars trilogy) have sited him as instrumental in their careers.

On a personal note, I am one of the millions of kids who was enthralled with the amazing things that Ray Harryhausen brought to life in his films. I was very lucky to meet him briefly in 2005 when he was doing a book signing for his The Art Of Ray Harryhausen, which was followed by a screening of Jason And The Argonauts. He was every bit the gracious gentleman I had heard he was when I thanked him for all the hours of enjoyment his movies had brought me. And while advances in technology may have made the way he made movies obsolete, the wonder that his work inspires will never go out of fashion.

Here is just a portion of Harryhausen’s most famous effects sequence from Jason And The Argonauts –

1. Wrath Of The Titans (Warner Brothers, More Than 3,500 Theaters, 99 Minutes, Rated PG-13): Well, here’s something you don’t see everyday–a sequel to a remake. 2010′s Clash of the Titans was one of the first films where international grosses played a part in making it a hit. It made a paltry $163 million domestically versus a $125 million budget, but its $330 million take overseas is what help bring this sequel around.

Sam Worthington is back as Perseus, who is back in the Titan fighting business when Hades and Ares conspire with the Titans to capture Zeus in order to wrestle power from him. Perseus is tasked with trying to free Zeus and save the world.

Jonathan Liebesman replaces Louis Leterrier as director, but many of international cast that compose the main players, including Liam Neeson and Ralph Finnes, return.  This should mean that the film will have as good a run overseas as the first one did. FYI, Liebesman will be directing that controversial Ninja Turtles film, so if you TMNT fans want to start your boycotts early, start them here.

2. Mirror Mirror (Relativity, @3,200 Theaters, 106 Minutes, Rated PG): In case you haven’t been reading FilmBuffOnline as much as you should, there will be two Snow White themed films being released this year. Both feature twists on the fairy tale where Snow White a more active role in opposing the evil queen and both feature an Academy Award-winning actresses playing the queen.

This film hits first and features America’s sweetheart Julia Roberts playing said queen and Lily Collins playing Snow. Snow White and the Huntsman open June 1st and features Kristen Stewart playing Snow White and Charlize Theron as the Queen.

Which one should you see? Well, that depends on what kind of new take on Snow White suits your fancy. This one is the lighter of the two, and might skew closer to the Disney film in tone.  Snow White and the Huntsman appears to be darker and more violent of the two. Something to consider if you are taking the kiddies with you.

Warner Brothers seems to betting that despite the poor reviews that 2010′s Clash Of The Titans remake, the sequel that they have coming to theaters next spring, Wrath Of The Titans, will do better. So much so, in fact, that they have already ordered a script for a projected third installment.

Dan Mazeau and David Leslie Johnson, who co-wrote Wrath’s screenplay with Steven Knight and also share story credit for the film with Greg Berlanti, have been hired by the studio to begin writing a treatment for a third installment in their mythological action series starring Sam Worthington.

Wrath Of The Titans follows the further adventures of Perseus (Worthington) as he defends mortals from the whims of an angry pantheon of Greek gods even though his father Zeus (Liam Neeson) is their leader. Also returning from the first film are Ralph Fiennes and Danny Huston. Joining the cast are Toby Kebbell, Edgar Ramirez, Rosamund Pike and Bill Nighy.

Right now, I have to honestly say that this news doesn’t excite me very much. I found Clash Of The Titans to be a terrible film, the victim of an inordinate amount of studio interference that forced a number of changes that dilluted down the original script. The movie was further harmed by a rushed post-production 3D conversion that was truly abysmal to watch. Wrath Of The Titans is going to have to make up a lot of ground in order to get me even a bit excited at the prospect of a third film in this franchise.

Via Hollywood Reporter.

Rosamund Pike will be replacing Alexa Davalos in the role Andromeda in the upcoming Clash Of The Titans sequel, Wrath Of The Titans. Davalos is reportedly unavailable to reprise the role when filming starts later this year.

Liam Neeson and Sam Worthington are both set to return to their roles of the Greek god Zeus and his half mortal son Perseus respectfully.

While the character was pretty much a plot device in the first film – claims that Andromeda’s beauty rivaled the gods angered Zeus to the point that he demanded that she be sacrificed to the monstrous Kraken – is reported to be expanded for the follow up. If true, it is possible that the role is being enlarged due to the unavailability of Gemma Arterton, who played Io in the original. Arterton has not yet been announced as joining the sequel and is scheduled to begin filming Hansel And Gretal: Witch Hunters in March.

Battle: Los Angeles helmer Jonathan Liebesman is behind the camera for Wrath Of The Titans, which studio Warner Brothers has already scheduled for a March 30, 2012.

I was in no way a fan of the last year’s Clash Of The Titans, feeling that the film had a number of problems from its horrible post-production conversion to 3D to a script that started off muddled and only got worse through reported studio interference at the editing stage and forced reshoots. Hopefully, things will go a little smoother this time and the end result will be a better film than the first one.

Via Deadline.

After a summer’s worth of negotiations, Jonathan Liebesman has been officially signed by Warner Brothers to direct their sequel to this past spring’s financial blockbuster but critically reviled Clash Of The Titans. Back in June, Liebesman had been the frontrunner on Warner’s shortlist of candidates based on footage that execs saw of his upcoming alien invasion flick Battle: Los Angeles.

While the first film made $491 million at the international box office, it did not fare well with critics. (The film currently has a 28% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.) To combat the complaints about Clash‘s muddy and horrible looking post-production 3D conversion, the studio is planning on filming the movie in the format. Writers, Dan Mazeau and David Leslie Johnson are currently working on the film’s script, which they developed as a treatment with Greg Berlanti.

Warners is hoping to have the project in front of cameras by early spring in order to have star Sam Worthington finished in time for his duties on an Avatar sequel which is hoped to start shooting in later half of 2011.

Ugh.

Despite horrible reviews, Clash Of The Titans has managed to earn almost $390 million worldwide at the box office, so it should come as no surprise that studio Warner Brothers is certainly anxious for a sequel. The studio has already tapped Greg Berlanti to write a script with hopes that they can get the film into theaters by the spring of 2012.

However, don’t expect Louis Leterrier to return to the director’s chair for the follow up. According to Deadline, Leterrier’s departure was “harmonious” and was explained away as him not being anxious to dive back into production on another film right away. But when you factor in the stories of reshoots and editing room interference from the studio, it perhaps isn’t so surprising that he declined to participate in the rush to get a second installment cranked out in just 24 months.

And speaking of those reshoots, I’m a little surprised that Warners didn’t just decide to cobble together a second feature from the reportedly copious amount of left over footage littering the editing room floor.

I suppose that there is a bright side to a Clash sequel, though. Since Warners is  intent on having their major tentpole releases all be lensed in 3D, then a second installment will be shot for the process and will not suffer from the shoddy, computerized, post-production transformation from 2 to 3D that the first film did.

Despite some bad reviews (30% over at Rotten Tomatoes), director Louis Leterrier’s remake of Clash Of The Titans has pulled in over $61 million at the box office. (Of course,the recently jacked up prices for 3D showings had a hand in that total.) In addition to the bad script and flat acting, some of the criticism leveled at the film targeted its bad, unconvincing 3D.

But don’t blame Leterrier for that. It wasn’t his decision to release the film in 3D. He didn’t even shoot the film in the format. But once studio Warner Brothers saw the grosses that James Cameron’s Avatar was pulling late last year, they ordered Clash to be quickly converted into 3D in order to cash in on the public’s apparent hunger for 3D movies.

It was a move that Leterrier was not enthusiastic about-

Listen, it was not my intention to do it in 3D; it was not my decision to convert it in 3D.

The process used to convert a film from 2D to 3D involves using computers to take certain elements of a frame of film and pop them forward into a separate plane from the background. Unfortunately, this process doesn’t approach the realism of films that are shot specifically for 3D.

That is one of the things I was saying to them. Don’t make it so much like a ViewMaster — so … so puffied up. . . Conversions, they all look like this. “Alice in Wonderland” looks like this. Remember the technology was not ready, so it’s Warner Bros saying we are giving you the best of what we can do.

Unfortunately, I see more studios ordering films into post-production 3D conversation with the eye towards making a quick buck at the box office over the objections of their directors. And in their drive for a quick short-term buck, they are probably damaging the long-term prospects of 3D as a viable form of film presentation that the public will want to spend their money on.

Via Hollywood Reporter.

In the future, long after Hollywood has broken free of its ouroboros-like cycle of pointless and needless remakes, I feel certain that director Louis Letterier‘s 2010 remake of Clash Of The Titans will be held as the epitome of everything wrong with the trend. Loud, abrasive and charmless, this new iteration of some classic Greek myths misses everything that made the original film, which featured the last work of visual effects maestro Ray Harryhausen, a minor classic.

In the 1981 original, we had Perseus, son of the Greek god Zeus and a mortal woman, questing and slaying monsters in order to save his beloved Andromeda from being sacrificed to the terrifying Kraken. Thirty years later, we have a hero (Sam Worthington) seemingly motivated by daddy issues who apparently thinks that running hither and yon killing things is a good substitute for an anger management course.

After his adoptive parents and younger sister are killed in the crossfire between the gods and mortals in the opening salvos of what could be all out war, Perseus vows to defend the city of Argos from its appointed meeting with the monstrous Kraken. Although his half-divine parentage grants him special powers, Perseus refuses to use them. In a gross miscalculation of our attention spans on the part of the filmmakers, Perseus repeatedly tells everyone within earshot that he will meet these challenges “as a man.” Although raised as a fisherman and allegedly not drawing on his divine advantages, Perseus manages to battle his way through a host of giant scorpions, the Medusa and a host of other perils with a band of soldiers many of whom, despite having far more experience at this sort of thing, don’t make it to the final reel.

Surprisingly, what should be a story about gods and men is surprisingly short on the gods side of things. The jealousy that lord of the underworld Hades feels towards Zeus and the other gods who get to reside on the far snazzier Mount Olympus and the rivalry between them would have made a great storyline for the movie, if it had been developed more. Instead it is more plot device than plot. And outside of Zeus and Hades, the remaining pantheon is woefully underused. Apollo and Hermes get about a line each while the rest stand around like nicely-dressed props.

Sam Worthington has certainly been making a name for himself recently headlining high profile genre films like Avatar and Terminator: Salvation. Unfortunately, this is the least of these films. The part of Perseus is barely written and what is on the page leaves Worthington no option but to growl and snarl all his lines.

But the film’s main problem is that it takes itself as seriously as a film like 300 or Gladiator when there is no call for it in the material. This affects the action to the point where it becomes more of an exercise in executing something visually challenging to create rather sequences that are fun or thrilling to watch. Clash Of The Titans also becomes yet another film to make the mistake in thinking that fast, frantic editing is more exciting, when it is usually dreadfully confusing and dull. This is a pity as I greatly enjoyed Leterrier’s work on The Incredible Hulk just two summers ago.

Letterier does manage to squeeze in a nod to the original film, but not is it only cringe-inducing, it comes off as snide and condescending. Perhaps someone should have reminded them that if it weren’t for the original, no one involved would have been collecting a paycheck for this cinematic catastrophe.

1. Clash Of The Titans (Warner Brothers, 3,777 Theaters, 118 Minutes, rated PG-13): The original Clash of the Titans, released in 1981, is regarded as a camp classic. This is mostly due to a cast that ran the gamut from Sir Laurence Olivier to Harry Hamlin, from Maggie Smith to Burgess Meredith and also for being the last film to feature Ray Harryhausen’s classic stop motion animation.

But was it ever considered a great movie? Or even one that cried out for a remake? Or even financial seemed like a good idea to remake?

This version does have some things going for it. It has a fresh from Avatar Sam Worthington in it, and Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes as well. But the tone seems to be less deliberately campy than the original and Harryhausen, who retired after the original, has been replaced by a computer. Those facts might outweigh the good in this case.

2. Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too (Lionsgate, 2,155 Theaters, 121 Minutes, Rated PG-13): I had one bright hope when it came to Tyler Perry. It was that eventually, he would run out of stage plays of his to adapt into film and then we’d never see or hear from him again.

But then he decided to make sequels to the films he already adapted from his plays! This could go on forever! We may never be rid of him.

Now, I am nowhere near Perry’s target audience, but from what I’ve seen, his rampant popularity astounds me. To be honest, he’s running from behind with me by just his name being on everything and him taking the showiest part for himself–in drag no less. But I just don’t get the success.

But he does have success and all his films do well at the box office. How well will he do against the Kraken and the Miley/Nicholas Sparks combo is another question entirely. He’s got his box office work cut out for him.