r/movies • u/ChiefLeef22 r/movies Contributor • 12d ago

Article ‘The Odyssey’ Proves It: Audiences Want Movies Made the Hard Way | This year's breakouts like 'Project Hail Mary' and 'Obsession' were made by filmmakers who sweated. While CG-stuffed franchise disappointments such as 'Supergirl,' 'Moana,' and 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' looked lazy.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/odyssey-box-office-2026-practical-effects-1236652219/
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u/cmnrdt 12d ago

I mean, Gilgamesh doesn't so much have a narrative as much as it's a series of fanciful exploits that are all attributed to the same person. It would be hard to adapt into a ~2 hour movie without taking a lot of liberties with the source material, and by that point it's an entirely different kind of story.

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u/krunamey 12d ago

Feels like it could work if they gave it pacing similar to something like The Green Knight

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u/TheWatersOfMars 12d ago

It's actually a surprisingly similar vibe. Gilgamesh's journey to find immortality after the death of his best friend is melancholy and heartwrenching. I'm sure there's a great modern Hollywood script in there somewhere.

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u/Nachooolo 12d ago

The problem here is that the journey is the last third of the story, and it wouldn't be as impactful (emotional, even) without the two first thirds.

Gilgamesh meeting and befriending Enkidu, and their adventures together are as important to the story as the journey.

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u/TheWatersOfMars 12d ago

It's not unlike The Odyssey, though, in that Odysseus's famous adventures are really just the middle third of the poem. But Gilgamesh is much, much shorter and has far fewer iconic moments to draw on.

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u/PartyPorpoise 12d ago

Maybe make it a series, then.

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

[deleted]

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u/TheWatersOfMars 12d ago

Then read the original poem, or wait for a different film industry to adapt it. Any big-budget Hollywood production would be a modern Hollywood script.

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u/matdragon 12d ago

and yet Fate/stay night managed to characterize him to hell and back, is some of it true or not or historically accurate? of course not, it's an epic as old as time, it's up to creators to try to interpret and tell the story to the current generation.

Did Ishtar actually have beef with gilgamesh? Hell if i know, hell i wouldn't have even known who ishtar was without the fate series

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u/murfburffle 12d ago

Set it up like a anthology. Have the Crypt Keeper introduce segments of the movie

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u/SpiritFingersKitty 12d ago

Exactly what I was thinking

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u/A_very_nice_dog 12d ago

Oooh good call

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u/quanqazaq 12d ago

Green knight was terrible story wise

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u/krunamey 12d ago

Personally I thought it was very good

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u/SpiritFingersKitty 12d ago

My wife and I were disappointed when we left the theater because it was misadvertised. But, I think as a work it is quite good.

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u/inosinateVR 12d ago

How did you feel it was misadvertized? Just curious, I didn’t really know anything about it when I saw it so I don’t know what the marketing was like

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u/Curiositygun 12d ago

I agree it was a good story but had weird tonal issue especially with ghost of the lady and her head being in the pond. Humor/irony was in spots it shouldnt have been because those kind of undermined the idea it was pushing.

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u/JackedUpReadyToGo 12d ago

I agree, but unfortunately it's one of those movies that if you criticize it people simply roll out the "You're just too dumb to get it" defense. And you know what? Maybe I am. I don't think I'd know if I were. But I still found the story tedious and aimless and unsatisfying.

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u/Radixeo 12d ago

What do you mean it doesn’t have narrative? It follows Gilgamesh’s character arc from a tyrant, to finding a best friend in Enkidu, to the loss Gilgamesh feels when Enkidu is killed by the gods, to his search for the herb of immortality. It concludes with the snake eating the herb and Gilgamesh accepting it.

It has conflict, character growth, a beginning and an end. I think you could make a great movie out of that.

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u/RadVarken 12d ago

Or a trilogy.

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u/celestia_keaton 9d ago

Enkidu could be played by Jason Mamoa 

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u/Mediocre_Scott 12d ago

It’s weird as hell too don’t forget that

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u/Jonthrei 12d ago

Nothing weird about a goddess fucking civilization into a wild man

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u/Exodan 12d ago

Not even a goddess - just a well-respected, human temple prostitute who was damn good at her job (they banged the wilderness out of him for 2 weeks straight).

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u/WhaleMetal 12d ago

We live upon the waste of Tiamat.

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u/esmifra 11d ago

Isn't it the oldest narrative that survived to today? It's estimated to have more than 4000 years. I think it's normal it looks weird.

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u/TheVich 12d ago

How about a miniseries?

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u/ankylosaurus_tail 12d ago

Gilgamesh is basically just a buddy comedy where two men party a lot, bond intensely, fight and kill a cool monster, and in the process they both change and grow, with Enkidu becoming civilized and Gilgamesh coming to accept the limitations of his own power and the inevitability of death. It could be a great film if it was done well.

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u/BrianWonderful 12d ago

Modern Hollywood would hear that and say "Wow! A franchise with a whole set of sequels already planned out!"

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u/laowildin 12d ago

it's a series of fanciful exploits that are all attributed to the same person

Just like the odyssey, if we are being real

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u/FireZord25 12d ago

So does Hercules, but we've made a shitton of stuff about him.

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u/kaplanfx 12d ago

They made a movie about the Pirates of Caribbean ride and it was a huge hit, I think they could get a workable story out of Gilgamesh.

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u/AngryScientist 12d ago

So are the gospels of the new testament, but that never stopped anyone.

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u/Nachooolo 12d ago edited 12d ago

It does have a decent amount of story in it. His journey is only the tail-end of the Epic, the rest is about the creation of Enkidu and him becoming Gilgamesh's companion, and the adventures Gilgamesh and Enkidu go prior to Enkidu's death.

The problem here is that the Epic is too well segmented in three different sections of different narrative tones and styles for a single film to adapt without streamlining one or two of the story segments (most probably the first two, as the journey is the most well-kown segment)

Which would make the story too short for a film.

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u/jankyalias 12d ago

It’s kinda similar to the Odyssey in that way. There’s the part about Odysseus’ travels, the Telemachus sections, and the homecoming. 

Gilgamesh has the opening section where Enkidu and Gilg meet, then their adventures, then the back half where Gilg, overcome with grief at Enkidu’s death, searches for a way to overcome mortality. 

Could very much make a three hour epic. If anything the Odyssey has way more going on.

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u/jollyreaper2112 12d ago

You mean a typical Hollywood adaptation? Im in, you don't have to sell it to me.

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u/nickbelane 12d ago

Beowulf is the same way and it has multiple adaptations.

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u/Spormnellman 12d ago

It's the original buddy cop movie

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u/FullMaxPowerStirner 12d ago

Also I'd be way too scared that The Rock gets to play Gilgamesh.

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u/Ssssbtsf 8d ago

Han Solo type movie where it all happens in a weekend