They all made it impossible to choose anyone else.” We just got very, very lucky that that happened three times with each one of those kids. There's no manual for how to make sure that happens. We just watched these kids and the choices they made, hoping that there were going to be kids who came in and just made it so apparent that they were the kid. “I tried to be really careful before we started to not come to the process with a preconceived idea of what anybody's target was going to be,” he starts. When asked what characteristics they were looking for in terms of casting the trio, Steinberg chalks it up to Scobell, Jeffries, and Simhadri having the “it” factor. I convinced myself if I tried hard enough, I could also hear what animals were thinking… and I ended up getting attacked by a pigeon in the fourth grade.”Īs mentioned before, the Riordans had no expectation of what the characters should look like, regardless of how they were depicted in the books, and Steinberg and Shotz also felt the same. And mostly because he could talk to animals. Percy’s sense of humor was most appealing to Scobell, and Jeffries sees a balance of “independence and vulnerability” in Annabeth that she connects to, but Simhadri shares a pretty funny anecdote about his connection to Grover, “I liked him so much when I read the book series. When asked what they related to most about their characters, each listed something that gave some insight into how they approached playing them. It helps that these young actors have been fans of the books since they were kids themselves. ![]() However, the spirit of the books couldn’t truly be captured without the trio at the center: Percy Jackson (Walker Scobell), Annabeth Chase (Leah Sava Jeffries), and Grover Underwood (Aryan Simhadri). Rick describes the DNA of his books as a “mix of adventure, a little bit of snark, a good amount of humor, and some heart with the characters really learning what it is to be friends and what it means to be a hero and step up and do hard things.” “It's not about how it looks or what the characters look like or any of that, but how it feels, how it resonates with fans of the books.” The Riordans’ role as executive producers is to “sort of be the police of that spirit to make sure that it's authentic,” Becky comments. The goal of any adaptation is to capture the spirit of the source material while helping it adjust to its current time and medium, but that’s a lot easier said than done. This is like a third child for them,” Shotz notes. We got to be in this little bubble, the four of us, and just dive into the story and really understand what it means to the fan base, what it means to his family. “We started this four years ago, right at the beginning of COVID. Riordan, along with his wife Becky, and Shotz and Steinberg collaborated throughout the pandemic to bring his beloved characters to life. We then got a phone call a year-and-a-half later saying, ‘Rick Riordan wants to think about maybe making this show again. ![]() When Disney bought the larger 21st Century Fox conglomerate in 2019, Rick likened those film rights reverting to the Mouse House to it “coming home” on his blog.Įxecutive Producers Dan Shotz and Jon Steinberg, who were also interested in adapting the books for Disney were also following the saga of the film rights, “It had gotten complicated. Riordan has shared his restricted experience as a consultant on those movies on his blog, along with his detailed notes on the various ways those scripts disregard the books’ spirit. While a Disney imprint published the Percy Jackson books since its beginning, 20th Century Studios acquired the film rights in 2004 and thus produced the fan-maligned 20 films.
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