Thor Freudenthal Interview – Director of Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

After attending a screening of Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters – the second installment of the popular Percy Jackson series I was given the opportunity to review the Director – Thor Freudenthal.  Thor was extremely energetic and passionate about his work on this movie.  I could tell instantly that he enjoyed directing the cast and bringing to life his vision of Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.

 

Given that you’re no stranger to bringing hot kids’ books to the screen, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the different challenges of Percy Jackson versus Diary of a Wimpy Kid because they’re such different books.

Percy Jackson was even more challenging because the book is a sprawling, multi-hundred page epic.  And in a two-hour movie, you can’t really do that.  We had to sort of make really tough choices to keep the pace up and create a three act structure.

And the result, since the story is about Camp Half-Blood becoming vulnerable, and the barrier of Camp Half-Blood being destroyed, that’s where we had to start our movie, rather than start it in school where the second book started, and spend a whole lot of time there, which really wouldn’t have amounted too much in the movie.

So, it’s fine in the book.  But it doesn’t really help the general plotting of the story, which means we have to introduce characters differently and bring them to the table differently.

Throughout the movie, Percy doubts himself and his ability to fulfill his prophecy.  He was really down on himself.  When it comes to conquering Kronos, I was surprised to see that the fight scene ended rather quickly.  It was almost like he went from doubting himself to conquering Kronos without much of a struggle.  Was there a reason behind that? 

Well, that’s definitely not really the intention. There are several steps along the way of him maybe coming into his own as a kind of a member of the family of Tyson and the Half-Bloods, and so forth.

He gets amble support from everyone, and he succeeds in small ways along the way in the journey, hopefully adding up to him having what it takes at the end with encouragement from Annabeth too, to defeat Kronos.

We could have added to the spectacle and to the reversals within the fight.  I don’t disagree.  But there’s also a limit to the grandiosity of visual effects that are required to create all that.  Personally, it works for me.

Was there any unique challenges to coming in for the second movie in a series when someone else directed the first movie, especially since Chris Columbus was one of the producers on this one?  Did that create any unique challenges?

Yes.  Definitely.

I was presented with a series of decisions that were already made from casting to how the story was sort of left at the end of the first movie. So, that’s challenging to sort of pick up the pieces and try to do the book justice with kind of ending up with what you have.  But it’s also very liberating because the setup has already been done.

Meaning Percy has learned who he is.  We’re already in that world.  It’s established.  So, now you can sort of dig a little deeper into it, as far as how you create the different aspects of Camp Half-Blood.

I wanted to create more of a life in the camp, or I wanted to show different sides of it.  And I wanted to sort of widen the scope of it.  So, you can almost pick a little bit around and see, okay, this worked really well in the first movie.  So, I definitely want to pick up that thread.

Here, I think we can lean heavier on the books, and so forth.  It’s kind of interesting to bring sort of a fresh coat of paint to a house that’s sort of half built.

I was happy with the wonderful choice of Logan Lerman.  And Alexandra Daddario and Brandon T. Jackson had already been casted and were at the party, so to speak.

Then too the fun becomes how do you find people that sort of fit with them and feel like they’re of the same world, and give enough new kind of impulse to them I guess.

I have to tell you, though, we made her {Annabeth} hair color blonde, but we had to do it also because we cast Clarisse, and Clarisse is clearly described as brunette.  Well, so, I’m, like, okay.  We have to have a blonde and a brunette.  Now I heard, I think once or twice, kids going, “I liked her better as a brunette.”  Clearly you sometimes have to make peace with the fact that you can’t win.

With this movie, after reading all the books, what character were you most excited to see portrayed on the big screen?  What was most satisfying to you?

I’d have to say Tyson, probably, because it was such a difficult thing to get done.

The thing about Tyson is, obviously I thought, okay, Cyclops generally are huge monsters, huge villains seen as brutes. I was, like, what a great idea to sort of create a character that embodies the idea of don’t judge a book by its cover.

He’s seen by the world as a monster, but he’s the kindest and sweetest. He has an innocence about him.  It was a challenge for that because in the book, he reminded me of Sloth from The Goonies.  I don’t know if you remember the character.

It’s sort of a monosyllabic kind of creature who speaks in two-word sentences.  You know, “Tyson hungry.”  That kind of thing.

And then that quickly auditioning these actors kind of evolved into kind of a weird version of children’s theatre.  So, what we had to do is add a little bit of sophistication to him, in that he is still very innocent.

But we’ve veered more towards he sort innocently enthusiastic about being at Camp Half-Blood.  He thinks it might be a place where he’s accepted finally.  But also having what he thinks is sort of a rock star brother in Percy Jackson.  And of course, Percy Jackson feels less than a rock star about himself.

The relationship and creating Tyson as a character with the help of an actor and some CGI was definitely very interesting to me also.  Very dangerous because people were concerned about creepiness and so forth.  But in the end, I’m pretty happy with his performance, how he comes across.

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters is out in theaters near you now.  I highly recommend this movie.  You can read my full Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters review to find out my age recommendation and whether or not I think 3D is worth the extra expense.

Which character is your favorite? Have you seen Sea of Monsters, if so which was your favorite part?