Percy Jackson and the Olympians premieres on Disney+ this December, but it won't be the first time author Rick Riordan's hit series of novels have graced the screen.
Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief arrived in theaters in 2010, with Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters following three years later; the movies starred Logan Lerman, Brandon T. Jackson, and Alexandra Daddario but received a middling response both critically and commercially. Crucially, most fans also disliked them.
Screenwriter Craig Titley recently spoke with Variety (via SFFGazette.com) and remembers Hollywood studios "buying up any book that had three kids chasing monsters" following Harry Potter's success in the early 2000s. 20th Century Fox acquired Percy Jackson and turned to Chris Columbus to replicate the same level of success he found with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and its sequel, The Chamber of Secrets.
However, a source close to the production at the time believes, "The problem was Tom Rothman." According to this insider, he "was notorious for doing movies on the cheap. So if 'Harry Potter' is what you’re aiming for, you’re automatically handicapping the project."
"He felt marketing could sell a known book series, so why spend top dollar?" the source adds. "But the special effects are bad. There’s not the edge that the books had." Titley confirms these budget constraints led to significant rewrites, including changing some of the first book's biggest moments.
Riordan tried and failed to convince the studio find ways to better translate his work (even offering detailed script notes) but his pleas fell on deaf ears. Reflecting now on the experience, he says, "I basically wrote off Hollywood for a long, long time. I really didn’t want to have anything to do with the film industry. There were many years of me saying, 'I don’t want to engage. I don’t want to think about other adaptations. I’m done.'"
"But when it started to become clear that something was going to happen with me or without me, I had a long talk with Becky, my wife. We said, 'Well, if something’s going to happen, it’s probably best to give it one more shot.'"
That "something" is Disney+'s upcoming TV series, a show the author says is "more faithful to the source material, which is what the fans of the books really would love to see."
To achieve that, it's said the budget for each episode of Percy Jackson and the Olympians ranges between $12 million - $15 million, putting it on par with Star Wars TV series, The Mandalorian. That's a big gamble on Disney's part, but the studio must believe the series has major potential to draw subscribers over the coming years.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians hits Disney+ on December 20 with a two-episode premiere.