Epic Movie! Jonathan Liebesman talks…

Before directing Wrath of the Titans, your name was originally attached to Odysseus, another film based upon Greek mythology. What is it about the genre you like so much?

I’m just interested in that world. Warner Bros said they were going to make the sequel to Clash of the Titans, and at the time they weren’t sure what they were going to do with Odysseus. I wanted to do a movie in this genre, so I moved over to direct this. What is great about Warner Bros is you get a lot of support, they put a lot of money into these things and they market them really well. Not a lot of studios believe in this genre like they do, so it was an opportunity to work with them on a genre I love. When I grew up watching movies, I always wanted to work on a film like Clash of the Titans. I have never met anyone who is not interested in Greek mythology.

Before Wrath and Battle, so far in your career you’ve made mainly horror movies, including Darkness Falls and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. Why did you tend to focus on them early on in your career?

Growing up I was a big fan of horror movies, and horror movies were a way into the industry. The movies I’m making now are much more the movies I’ve always wanted to make, which are Battle Los Angeles and Wrath of the Titans. It’s interesting, because my experience of working on horror movies really help me in certain situations. There is a scene for Wrath that we shot in a labyrinth, and it features a lot of suspense. I also think a couple of the more successful moments in Battle Los Angeles were the suspense moments, and that’s all down to the horror films I made.