Percy Jackson and the Olympians Fansite

On the latimes website, Erica Cerra who plays Hera in The Lightning Thief sat down to talk about her role in Percy Jackson, as well as other roles she is working on. Sounds pretty cool! She seems like a good actress. I’ve never seen her in any shows but I’m excited to see her in the Percy Jackson film!

Q: So you’re one of the Vancouver-based actresses. With so much production, TV and film, is it tougher now than it’s ever been in ‘Hollywood North’ to get a role?

A: It’s funny, I started up here when I was 5 or 6, and when I did it I was with the first agency in Vancouver when we had “21 Jump Street,” or about that time. There was such a small pool of actors in the city that it was easy to make it big… Now, there’s so many other Canadians and people from other places coming here as opposed to L.A. There was sort of this handful of people my age that would go out, I’d say 10 girls, and we could say ‘Oh, you get this one and I’ll get the next.’ Now, I went to my first audition in a few years [because of "Eureka"] and I thought ‘Who are all of these people?’ It’s not like L.A. though. L.A. is tough! Not just the casting directors, the actors are even tough! Not that Vancouver is a small town, but you come from this sort of camaraderie. It’s not the little evil shark tank [that's in L.A.] I think that if something is right for you, it will come to you regardless of what you try to do to get it.

Q: So in getting the role of Hera, did you research her or just go by the books or the script?

A: Well, unfortunately, Chris Columbus was not banging down my door, and I had to go in and audition. I initially went in for Medusa and Persephone. Shocking that I didn’t beat out Uma Thurman or Rosario Dawson, I know. But, he brought me back a couple of times and I auditioned for another character. Then I came back again for another character and ultimately got the part of Hera. Even before that, though, I ran out to the library and got all of the books. I love fantasy. If I could have, at the time when I was 12, been on “Harry Potter,” then I would have… I was like, “Percy Jackson and the Olympians!” Cool! All that being said, who ever knows how a character is going to be portrayed in a movie as opposed to the mythology…. There is more to come with my character, so at that point, I’ll do more research when that comes.

Q: So, there’s thoughts of a sequel already?

A: Hopefully they’ll do the other movies. In one of the other stories, Hera helps Percy in one of his missions. I think [the franchise] will be a big success and I think that unfortunately “Harry Potter’s” coming to an end and there’s always room for new cool boy heroes. Or heroes in general.

Q: And how does the movie differ from the books?

A: I think that they’ve made the movie a bit more tempting for an older audience, whereas the stories are for children. So they’ve opened up the audience.

Q: So, do they contemporize the gods?

A: No, not totally, and I think they made a really good choice. I think you can see with Persephone in the trailer, he just goes sort of classic and beautiful. I think that they’ll, well, I don’t think, I know, but I just don’t want to tell you too much! Some of the gods are a little bit edgier, but, at least for the goddesses, they’re mostly classic.

Q: Did you have to do a lot of CG work and did you get to work with those other actors a lot?

A: A bit of both. There is a special effect, that I won’t give away, that is really neat when [Percy] first meets the gods, but I don’t want to give any away… I know that there is a shot that you do see of all of the gods and goddesses sitting in their chairs on Mount Olympus that is pretty interesting.

Q: So, with the fandom aspect that could come with a series of “Percy” movies … does that fanboy scene appeal to you?

A: I’ve done it for “Eureka” a couple of times. I’ve gone to Comic-Con and I went to [an expo] in London. I have a great love for the genre audiences. They’re so supportive and so great. I really enjoy the idea of getting lost in a fantasy world, and I think they do too.

Q: You mentioned “Eureka” …

A: You’re gonna love this season! They just called me and said ‘So this is what we have planned for this season.’ And, it’s funny, they asked me what I expected out of the season, and I really have no idea. I give them my ideas, and sometimes they let me do what I want, and sometimes they have their own ideas. But they have such a cool concept [coming up]! And it’s ‘Eureka,’ but totally different. And it’s going to happen right in the beginning. Imagine big, and that’s what happens.

Q: You’re going to be a telepath!

A: [Laughs] No! What’s going to happen affects the whole cast, the whole city. And there might be some new faces.

Q: So how’s the role of Deputy Jo Lupo the law enforcer been for you, and do you see more romance in the future?

A: Well, my character started off like ‘We want Chyna.’ You know, 5′10, 200-pound, muscled Chyna … and they ended up with me. I just saw “Avatar,” and I think [Michelle Rodriguez] is what they wanted — you know this really tough chick. So that’s what I did. Then later they came and said, ‘OK, the audience doesn’t really like this, so let’s try something different and soften you up.’ That being said, some people loved her, loved her being tough. In Season 3, they took her love relationship to a whole ‘nother level, showing that there’s a much softer side to Jo … but I really want tough Jo back. There’s a lot of love going on and we don’t need so much love.

Q: So, no more scenes of you singing on top of pianos?

A: [Laughs] Oh, OK. That wasn’t necessarily my favorite thing to do, but I loved that episode! I had an absolute blast doing that episode. Talking to another version of myself was challenging and a lot of fun…. But yeah, I want that special forces chick back. The little tough girl.

Q: Back to “Percy Jackson” and Hera … do you bring any of that toughness to her?

A: Well, the story of Hera is that she is a bit of a prude. She is the goddess of marriage so she has a bit of a tough time with what goes on with the gods, their fraternization with the humans and having babies and such. Hera basically dislikes everyone, even her own husband and brother cause he’s had a million affairs There is an element of bitterness towards her, and from her a bit towards Percy and Annabeth cause there’s the possibility of something maybe happening between the two of them. She just feels that there should be a bit more loyalty.

Q: How is it that the gods just keep popping out babies with humans, enough to fill a classroom?

A: Well, that’s just in the mythology. Hera and Zeus (husband and wife) and Poseidon are brothers and sister. Husbands and wives and sons and daughters all have affairs in the gods. It’s in “Percy Jackson” but it’s softened a bit. They don’t touch on it much. Wasn’t Hercules also a son of the gods? These gods and goddesses hang out for a millennia or more, for thousands of years together … they get bored.

[Source: LATimesBlogs]

Logan, Alexandra, Brandon and Jake were in Greece a couple days ago and had an interview overlooking the Acropolis! Some points were that Brandon is the only one with a twitter account. Follow Brandon on Twitter by clicking here.

Alexandra visited Greece once before three years ago, and is the only one of the four to do so. (Well, the only one until this interview) Alexandra was cast a bit late, she only had a couple weeks of training. Brandon to play Grover had green tights on, and had to run on his “tippy toes”.

Also, you can download the Movie Score by Christophe Beck on February 8th. All in all, a great interview, it’s about 17 minutes long. “Wait a second! But the video is 19 minutes long!” You are correct. The Last couple minutes is an exclusive look at the Hydra scene not from the book! Enjoy!!

There are two videos, one is the interview plus the Hydra scene, and the second is exclusively the Hydra scene. Both are amazing!

[Source: heyuguys]

With just two weeks left to go until The Lightning Thief comes out, we have a question: Will The Lightning Thief stop Avatar from another top box office win?

Avatar has already won 6 weeks in a row, and it’s poised to win again this weekend. There are a couple films that just may beat out Avatar first, like ‘Edge of Darkness’ starring Mel Gibson or ‘When in Rome’ starring Josh Duhamel and Kristen Bell both out now.

But the only way I see Avatar beaten this or next weekend is from people not seeing for the hundredth time. I mean, it’s already made over $1.800,000,000. Everyone must have seen it more than once, and some quite a few times. It’s stopped making a lot, but it’s still likely to be on top for one more week.

What do you think? Will Avatar die before Lightning Thief from a different film? Or will The Lightning Thief be the one to finally, take it off it’s throne? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

On The Lightning Thief’s page on fandango.com, they have posted the official run time for the film. It’s at a precise 2 hour length. I think that’s pretty sweet. Personally, I like really long movies, and anything under 2 hr and 30 min is a bit short for me, especially with films adapted from books. I know there a lot of people though that like shorter films, and I’ll admit there are some 2&1/2 hr films that I came out of thinking, “Man, they could have cut that down by an hour and it would have been terrific”.

But like I said, with book adaptions, 2 hr is just a bit short. All well, I’m still sure it’ll be terrific. And let us not forget what the late Alfred Hitchcock said: “The duration of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder”. Yeah, pretty good quote eh? What do you think of the runtime?

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Uma Thurman recently sat down to talk about….. what other movie than Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief? As the days wind down to the release, we expect to find many more interviews from the actors/actresses. As they pop up, we will be sure to post them!

What interested you about Medusa and this film?
I was a great fan of Chris Columbus. The script was fantastic, Chris wanted me to do it, and it seemed like a fun idea. So I just went online and I did some research about Medusa to get an idea about the character. I thought her story was very interesting and quite sad.

What was it that intrigued you about her story?
She was a maiden, a priestess of Athena and was known for having extremely beautiful hair. She was worshipping in the temple of Athena when Poseidon took a liking to her and ravished and abused her for his pleasure. Athena was angry that someone else was admired over herself because she was a lover of Poseidon, so she took revenge upon the offended maiden by damning her to immortality and loneliness and a head of snakes. Should she ever seek company from anyone, they would turn to stone.

What did you think of the idea of bringing the Greek gods into contemporary America?
It is sheer brilliance. When I read the script it was one of the most intelligent and exciting ideas I had seen, both actively alive and playful. It is full of richness and character, and I thought it had something worthwhile to say.

How important do you think it is to have inspiring and uplifting films like Percy Jackson that are also entertaining?
Very important. There is a lot of horribly boring, dreadful children’s entertainment and I am glad not to be part of it. For this one, the script was great, it was beautifully imaginative, I loved the subject and it had a great director standing behind it too.

You have CG (computer generated) snakes on your head. How do you interact with your snake hair?
The snakes were computer generated and I had a green cap on while I was filming but just for fun at a rehearsal, we brought in a plethora or “flock” of real snakes. Medusa slightly talks to them and looks at them so I wanted to bring a sense of reality to the unreality of it all.

What do you think of the theme of this film?
It is about a boy who becomes a very unlikely hero and it has an interesting take on learning disabilities.

I think it is great because I have a daughter who’s dyslexic and I was dyslexic myself. And as many times as people say “you have other gifts; for every problem God gives you, he gives you a problem solving skill,” it is always difficult. This is a very empowering idea for children and is a subject very close to me.

Is there any particular Greek god that you think is fantastic, if you had to pick one?
I always love the story of Cupid and Psyche. For some reason I was very fond of all the Greek myths in school, so for me this film was a lot of fun. I just happened to really love studying the gods and goddesses. I think from a psychological point of view, there’s a huge interest in the stories and how they relate to human life.

[Source: Malaya]

With more great official high resolution posters being released and leaking, we thought it was time to produce a few more great high resolution wallpapers of The Lightning Thief characters.

We mixed and matched the characters up a bit to make things interesting, give fans several options for new wallpapers and to try to some variety so fans with particular character favs can show their off their Percy Jackson heroes on their desktops.

Any additional requests? Otherwise, we’ll just crank more out soon. Here are a just a few shown below, but you can see all of the new ones over in the wallpaper area or click on any one of the wallpaper images and you will be directed over to the wallpaper area too to grab one or more of your favorites.

mb.com has posted an article about dyslexia and ADHD and how it plays a big part in Percy Jackson. We don’t really hear about people with dyslexia or ADHD, at least I don’t. so to hear that several people working on this film have children who have dyslexia is interesting, and an eye opener.

Uma Thurman’s daughter is dyslexic, Rick Riordan’s son is dyslexic and has ADHD and it was this reason that inspired Percy Jackson. And in an interview we posted earlier, we found out that Chris Columbus’ daughter is dyslexic.

Originally woven and written for his child, Rick Riordan’s best selling book series “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” now forms part of society’s answer to dyslexia among the young.

The novels draw on Riordan’s experience with his son, who was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia.

After recounting the stories of gods and heroes, he ran out of myths and his son asked him to make up a new story.

Over the course of a few nights the story of Percy Jackson came to life and at the suggestion of his son, he wrote what became “The Lightning Thief.”

Now a major motion picture, 20th Century Fox brings to life Greek mythology’s gods and goddesses with a contemporary twist in the most unusual and highly entertaining way helmed by “Harry Potter’s” original director Chris Columbus.

The story centers on an unusual hero, Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman), who at first appears to be an ordinary (actually struggling) teenager. In fact, we soon learn that he is the son of the great god of the sea, Poseidon (Kevin McKidd). His mother is a mortal woman, Sally Jackson (Catherine Keener).

Percy, who suffers from dyslexia, is forced to confront his destiny because Zeus (Sean Bean) is convinced that this teenager is responsible for stealing his precious and all-powerful lightning bolt.

As a result, Percy is swept up in a battle between the mighty, legendary deities. To make matters even more complicated, Hades (Steve Coogan) has kidnapped his mother, Sally. Percy must prove his innocence, avert an epic conflict and rescue his mother.

“In the beginning you find out he’s just like any kid with a learning disability, he has dyslexia. He’s had to overcome those difficulties his whole life and you find out that this disability actually works to his advantage as a demigod. The film really has a universal theme, because everybody goes through this kind of journey of trying to find out who they are. That’s really the underlying theme of the whole film along with a lot of action, adventure, and Greek mythology,” says Lerman.

First he must go to a special retreat for others like him: Camp Half Blood. Then he embarks on his perilous expedition: supported by his childhood friend, Grover (Brandon Jackson). It turns out that Grover himself is no mere mortal. He is a courageous satyr. Also on the journey is another demigod: Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario), daughter of the goddess Athena.

EMPOWERING THE DYSLEXIC

The all-out adventure also includes share along with the other cast a passion for empowering the dyslexic. Uma Thurman who plays Medusa thinks this is great because she has a daughter who’s dyslexic and she herself was a dyslexic.

“This is a very empowering idea for children and is a subject very close to me. It is hard for children who are wonderful but who have something that challenges them, which makes it hard for them to feel equal and can make them feel inadequate because of the way in which we choose to educate and learn.”

She continues that being dyslexic can be incredibly discouraging because there’s a huge range or spectrum, but many dyslexics are highly articulate, highly verbal people and very expressive.

“They have extreme gifts in that area. And if you find yourself shut out from being able to express your thoughts and unable to read the thoughts of others, it is difficult. By the way, being a powerful oral learner is incredible too, it is part of what makes me an actress.”

Rosario Dawson, on the other hand, finds it interesting that there are nine-year-olds with cell phones these days and kids are becoming mature at a younger age and the correlation with the increasing number of kids getting diagnosed with conditions like ADD (attention deficit disorder).

“So I think kids have to be so cognizant of what their gifts are. It is appealing to put a twist on all of that.”

[Source: MB.com]

ABC News has listed USA TODAY’S Best Selling Books! The Lightning Thief, Mr Riordan’s first book in the series was listed as the 9th best seller this time!

Other books in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series that made the top 50 include The Sea of Monsters at #42 spot and The Battle of the Labyrinth got the #45 spot.

#9: The Lightning Thief

#42: The Sea of Monsters

#45: The Battle of the Labyrinth

Congrats again to Mr Riordan for his continued success!

[Source: ABCNews]

The Lightning Thief cast is ramping up at full speed as they prime fans and moviegoers for their fast approaching release. Here are several photos and videos of Logan Lerman, Brandon T. Jackson, Alexandra Daddario and Jake Abel in Detroit, Dallas and San Francisco.

What do you think? Are they doing a good job promoting the movie? What could they do differently?

Check out these awesome “behind the scenes” photos of The Lightning Thief cast on the set while making the movie. Shots include Chris Columbus (director), Logan Lerman, Brandon T. Jackson, Alexandra Daddario, Pierce Brosnan, the truck, the Vegas Maserati, Medusa’s garden and more.

The cast and crew look like they had a lot of fun on the set, which should definitely show through in the quality of the movie.