Chris Columbus has brought the world some of the most loved family movies of the last few decades – Home Alone 1 & 2, the first two Harry Potter films, Mrs Doubtfire and the writer behind Gremlins and The Goonies. Logan Lerman plays the title character in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and is also rumored to be starring as the rebooted Spiderman. Check out my interview with the two of them below
Trouble-prone Percy Jackson is having problems in high school – but that’s the least of his challenges. It’s the 21st century, but the gods of Mount Olympus seem to have walked out of the pages of Percy’s Greek mythology texts and into his life. Percy has learned that his real father is Poseidon, god of the sea, which means Percy is a demigod – half human, half god. At the same time, the powerful gods on Olympus are feuding, which could launch a war enveloping our entire planet.
How’s it feel that after all the hard work, the films finally coming out?
Chris Columbus: It’s a wonderful feeling, we actually didn’t know we’d make the release date, we always had this date in mind. It worked out very well, I’m very happy with the film, very happy with the visual affects and very happy to say it’s nothing like Harry Potter (laughs) I just wanted to get that off my chest immediately.
How much has CGI technology changed since that first Harry Potter film?
Chris Columbus: The first three Harry Potter films were a gradual course in CGI for myself, if you notice the first film is a little creaky, it’s ok then as we subsequently went to picture two and three the visual effects got better, I learned a lot, I realised there’s a certain method and that you just have to be obsessive with the visual effects to make sure they’re seamless with what the actors are doing. With this I think we succeeded.
You started out real young in your career, this is a great roll for you.
Logan Lerman: Yeah I started really young, I’m from LA so it’s much more accessible to give it a shot, there’s an audition for a commercial somewhere around the block. I slowly climbed the ladder, now I’m here and I don’t how I got here, I just kept going with it. I’m really proud of this film, if people recognise me from this film then I’m fine with it, it’s very flattering to me, it’s the biggest compliment you can get. As long as it’s for the right reasons, I’m proud of it.
What made you interested in making the film, and what made you come to the decision for making the characters slightly older than in the books?
Chris Columbus: For me it was important that the characters felt a little older than they did in the book because I couldn’t envision battle training, gladiator training eleven year olds with wooden swords, I felt this needed to be a little bit more edgy, a little more gritty and dirtier as much as we can do in a PG film. Also I was intrigued in the concept, which I had never seen before, with the concept of Greek mythology coexisting with modern American culture, I thought it was a great idea, that was why I wanted to do the film.
What parts of the Greek mythology were you keen to get across.
Chris Columbus: If you know anything about Greek mythology there’s that certain element that is very complex and dark and that’s not really for children, then there’s the classic element that we all learnt at school when we were twelve years old. I think we’re tapping into that element. It’s certainly not an educational film, that will send children running from the theatres but hopefully, it could develop some sort of interest in Greek mythology for them and maybe they can take an interest in reading more and more about it. For me I wanted the film to work for both parents and children, I’ve had to accompany my own children to a lot of children’s films and sometimes when it’s a little animal singing I’m bored out of my skull, so for me it was really really important that it worked for the parents as well.
With the number of books in the series, do you think we’ll see more films coming from the series?
Chris Columbus: I don’t want to be presumptuous enough to say that we’re gonna be successful and that we’re gonna be able to make the other films, but if we are successful enough and I hope we are, I’d love to make another film immediately with these guys. I loved the cast, I had a wonderful time making the film. It was a lot of hard work but I just loved the enthusiasm and the lack of cynicism, it’s a really talented cast we assembled, I wanna go back and work quickly.
Why are you interested in these types of films?
Chris Columbus: I think it’s the lack of cynicism, it comes from the fact that these guys are just happy to have jobs at the most basic level. The cast is so happy being there and performing it just enthuses me with the same amount of energy, I really like working off that energy. You rarely see it with people who have been working for years and years and years.
Logan were you a fan of the books before making the film?
Logan Lerman: I discovered them through the movie, I knew nothing of them before, when I first got the script right below the title it said Chris’s name so that’s what really attracted me to it, his films shaped my childhood so much, I’m such a big fan, I wanna become a part in another one of his films. Then I read the script and fell in love with it, then I read the book and fell in love with it so it was a backward process for me.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief is in cinemas the 12th of Febuary
