Logan Lerman Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters

Logan Lerman Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters

Cast: Logan Lerman, Brandon T. Jackson, Alexandra Daddario, Jake Abel, Douglas Smith, Stanley Tucci, Anthony Head, Nathan Fillion
Director: Thor Freudenthal
Rated: PG
Running Time: 106 minutes

Synopsis: Based on the best-selling book, Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters continues the young demigod's epic journey to fulfill his destiny. To save their world, Percy and his friends must find the fabled and magical Golden Fleece. Embarking on a treacherous odyssey into the uncharted waters of the Sea of Monsters (known to humans as the Bermuda Triangle), they battle terrifying creatures, an army of zombies, and the ultimate Evil.

Percy Jackson Sea Of Monsters
Release Date: September 19th, 2013

About the Production

Percy Jackson isn't feeling very heroic. The half-human son of Poseidon – the Greek god of the sea – once saved the world, but Percy's starting to think that might have been a fluke. Is he a flash in the pan…a one-quest wonder?

When Percy learns he has a half-brother who's a monster, he wonders if being the son of Poseidon might be more of a curse than a blessing. But Percy doesn't have much time to brood; the magical borders of Camp Half-Blood are beginning to fall and a horde of mythical monsters threatens to destroy the sanctuary for the children of the gods.

In order to save the demigods' haven, Percy and his friends must find the fabled and magical Golden Fleece. Their journey takes them to Washington, D.C. and on to the Florida coast, where they set sail on a treacherous odyssey into the uncharted, deadly waters of the Sea of Monsters, known to humans as the Bermuda Triangle.

They are challenged by a giant mechanical fire-breathing bull, terrifying sea creatures, a gigantic Cyclops, and other demigods of uncertain allegiances. The stakes are higher than ever and if Percy doesn't succeed, Camp Half-Blood will cease to exist and all of Olympus will crumble.

Author Rick Riordan, who taught Greek Mythology for many years in middle school in California and Texas, came up with the idea for the first Percy Jackson book. This led to four additional novels and a huge fan base numbering in the millions, after reading the sagas of the ancient Greek heroes as bedtime stories to his son, Haley.

'When I ran out of myths, my son became disappointed," the author relates on his website. 'He asked me if I could make up some new stories with the same characters. I remembered a creative writing project I used to do with my sixth graders, which allowed them to create their own demigod hero, the son or daughter of any god they wanted, while having them describe a Greek-style quest for that hero.

'Off the top of my head, I made up Percy Jackson and told Haley all about his quest to recover Zeus' lightning bolt in modern day America. It took about three nights to tell the whole story and, when I was done, Haley told me I should write it out as a book."

Those three nights ultimately became a yearlong odyssey for Rick Riordan (pronounced Rye'-er-dan) in completing his first book for young readers (he was already an established author, having written several prior novels, his first being the Tres Navarre private eye thriller, Big Red Tequila, in 1997).

'I picked a few of my sixth, seventh and eighth graders and asked them if they'd be willing to -test drive' the novel," Rick Riordan continues. 'I'm used to showing my work to adults, and had no idea if kids would like Percy. I finally understood what it must be like for them, turning in an essay to me and waiting to get their grades back! Fortunately, the kids really liked it. They had some good suggestions, too."

The book was published in 2005, but it would be another five years before Hollywood would bring the first of the Percy Jackson stories to the screen. While the studio explored turning Rick Riordan's first book into a movie, the author continued the series by penning a new novel each year between 2006 and 2009.

Little did Rick Riordan realise that the big screen version of his first novel, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief would become a global box-office and home entertainment hit. The film, directed by Chris Columbus, who is executive producer on Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters, was enjoyed by millions around the world, including filmmaker Thor Freudenthal. After viewing 'Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief," Thor Freudenthal began reading the books and became a fan. 'I found a lot of emotion and an irreverent, whimsical tone in the books," he says. 'The amazing trick that [author] Rick Riordan pulls off is having fun at a very fast pace and not always taking himself too seriously. But he never sacrifices the emotional core, which is a bunch of kids who have a heavy burden to carry: they have parents who are larger than life and are mostly absent. I'm a sucker for big emotions in a movie, and I also love a healthy sense of humor to go along with it. Both the books and this movie embody those notions."

Thor Freudenthal says he wanted to depict the overlap of the real and mythological worlds. 'Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters shows new aspects of Camp Half-Blood; we wanted to paint a full picture of the beautiful sanctuary for the Half-Bloods and create magic."

The notion of a teen realising he or she is, well, not entirely from this earth, was irresistible to screenwriter Marc Guggenheim. 'Who wouldn't want to grow up and one day learn you are a demigod?" he asks. And Percy is a compelling and relatable lead demigod. 'He's so pure of heart," adds Marc Guggenheim. 'Percy is cool, has a sense of humour and a little swagger, but at the end of the day he always does the right thing."

Marc Guggenheim and Thor Freudenthal remained true to the spirit of the book, while making necessary adjustments in translating it for the big screen. 'There were some things that had to change [in adapting the book] because the structure of a book is very different than the structure of a movie," Marc Guggenheim explains. 'But we always drew inspiration from the book."

One of the biggest challenges in the adaptation, says Marc Guggenheim, is that, 'the tones of the novel are very specific and, once you put them up on a movie screen, there's a danger that they'll feel incongruous with each other: the seriousness of the threat of [the über-villainous] Kronos might feel at odds with the wild and zany aspects of some of the other characters. The challenge is making sure that those tones complement rather than clash with one another. Our director, Thor, always had a very clear vision for how every piece of the movie should fit together."

With so many of the young cast members having worked together before on 'Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief," there was significant on-set camaraderie. 'It was a lot of fun," says Logan Lerman. 'We all became really tight on the first film, and we were looking forward to making this new one. I'm really appreciative of all the fans and everyone that liked the first -Percy Jackson' film enough to warrant a sequel."

Logan Lerman returns as the titular hero, the demigod son of Poseidon, who embarks on his own, modern-day Odyssey. 'At the beginning of this film, Percy is not living up to his potential and he doubts himself," says Logan Lerman. 'Percy feels abandoned by his father, the Greek god Poseidon, and then, he finds out that he has a brother."

If shocking family revelations weren't enough, Percy must deal with Polyphemus, an enormous and powerful Cyclops; Charybdis, the sea monster; the raging Colchis Bull, a giant, metallic and fire-breathing creature that attacks Camp Half-Blood; the Manticore, a formidable monster with a lion's body and a long, scorpion-like tail; and the ancient Oracle, an ancient mummified mystic with empty eye sockets and skeletal features. The Oracle further complicates Percy's sense of self and duty, says Logan Lerman, when it tells him he 'is either going to destroy Olympus or save it. He's not sure if he can rise to the occasion."

Percy has a lot at stake, according to Thor Freudenthal. 'He's trying to save Camp Half-Blood and prove himself as a hero. He's grown distant from his father, who is not really responding to his requests for help. Percy embarks upon his -odyssey' for two reasons: to save his home, and to ascertain if he is indeed a hero."

Alexandra Daddario returns as Annabeth Chase, the demigod offspring of Athena, goddess of wisdom, the role she created in 'Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief." 'One of the most enjoyable aspects of the first film was accessing a bad-ass quality that you don't really get to access in your real life. It's been a great experience being able to do that," says the actress.

But in Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters, Alexandra Daddario notes, 'We see more of Annabeth Chase's sensitive side. In the first she was very tough; in this one we see a lot more of her vulnerability."

Brandon T. Jackson reprises the role of Grover, Percy Jackson's satyr friend. Brandon Jackson explains that in Greek mythology, satyrs, which are half man, half goat, 'are mischievous. They are fun-loving characters and very protective of the earth. Grover has a lot of heart. He would do anything to save Camp Half-Blood, and he would give his life for Percy because they're best friends."
Brandon Jackson admits that reprising a character 'is challenging because you've got to bring growth to the character. In this film, Grover is a little older; he's got his horns now. Grover doesn't want to go on this quest because it could actually kill him. But he has to because a satyr guide is required to find the Golden Fleece.

'He's not scared, but he knows his life is in danger with Polyphemus, the gigantic Cyclops in possession of the Golden Fleece," Brandon Jackson continues. 'Grover would rather stay at home and chill at Camp Half-Blood. Polyphemus is like Kryptonite to him. He eats satyrs for breakfast!"

Jake Abel is back as Luke, the first film's 'lightning thief," and the son of Hermes, the messenger of the gods. 'Demigods are the sons and daughters of gods and human beings," says Jake Abel. 'They inherit the powers or characteristics of their god parent. Luke, being the son of Hermes, is very mischievous and a quick thinker. He's mercurial, enigmatic and devious.

'In this first film, Luke stole Zeus' lightning bolt, and Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters is a continuation of his journey, rebelling against his father," Jake Abel continues. 'Feeling angry, forgotten and neglected, he wants to show the gods who's boss, and Luke comes up with a plan to end the reign of the gods and, in the process, bring some of the demigods over to the dark side."

Luke, like Percy, seeks the Golden Fleece, but for a very different reason. 'Luke wants to bring back the ultimate, original evil, which is Kronos, the Titan who was overthrown by his sons," says Jake Abel. 'With the Fleece, Luke can resurrect Kronos and bring him back to life. Luke believes Kronos will promise him everything and help him bring down Olympus and conquer the world."

On his journey to battle Luke and retrieve the Golden Fleece, Percy discovers he has a half-brother, Tyson, who is a Cyclops. 'Tyson is a sweet, teenage Cyclops," says Thor Freudenthal. 'Cyclopes are viewed as monsters, but everything about Tyson is the opposite of that."

'Tyson is a warrior, of sorts," says Douglas Smith, who plays the one-eyed teen. 'He's a really soulful, salt of the earth Cyclops. Tyson is one of those people who seem overly simple but he's actually got a deep wisdom. It comes in handy in the quest because he's got a variety of skills that only Cyclopes have. He's a good guy, and identifies more with the Half-Bloods than with the other Cyclopes, who like to eat demigods. Tyson looks like a villain, but he has a heart of gold and that can be very confusing when people meet him. And it's confusing for him, too."

Like Percy, Tyson is a son of Poseidon, but while Percy's mother is human, Tyson's mother was a sea nymph. Douglas Smith describes the sibling relationship: 'Percy and Tyson are half-brothers, but Tyson doesn't like to harp on that. Percy doesn't expect to have a brother show up at camp, he doesn't expect to bring him along on the journey, and he does not expect to be won over by Tyson's optimism and point of view, which is fresh and filled with wonder. Ultimately, Percy realises that Poseidon is looking out for him, because he sent Tyson to Percy."

Initially, the filmmakers planned to give Smith a prosthetic eye, but they decided to create the eye mostly through visual effects. The prosthetic shrank in size from a full facemask to a small forehead application that created the effect of a single brow, which Douglas Smith only had to sport when Tyson wears sunglasses. And, as in the book, an application of magical mist creates the illusion of Tyson having two eyes; for those scenes, Douglas Smith wears only his own visage.

The newest demigod at Camp Half-Blood is Clarisse LaRue, daughter of Jake Ares, the god of war. Leven Rambin plays Clarisse, whom she says is, 'innately prone to fighting, competition and being the best. She always wants to prove herself to her father, who wanted a son, so she's trying to live up to that."

'Clarisse contributes to Percy's feelings of inadequacy and makes him question his abilities and whether he belongs in Camp Half-Blood," says Thor Freudenthal. 'Clarisse is insecure, and that's why she has such an attitude. It's her insecurity that someone's going to best her or embarrass her that drives her to feel the need to bully people."

Anthony Head portrays Percy's mentor, Chiron, a Centaur – half-man and half-horse. 'Centaurs like drinking and partying, and Chiron is completely the opposite; he's learned and kind," says Anthony Head, who is best known for his role as the mentor to the heroine of the television series 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer." 'Chiron treats Percy like a son. He's noble and at the same time, possesses some darkness because he is Kronos' son. And Kronos is the -big bad' who is basically responsible for all the things wrong in the world of Percy Jackson."

Academy Award®-nominee and Golden Globe® and Emmy Award®-winner Stanley Tucci plays Dionysus, known as Mr. D to the young residents at Camp Half-Blood. 'He's the god of wine, and hedonism," notes Stanley Tucci. 'I like wine and I thought it was appropriate for me to take the role; there was no need for research!" he quips.

'Zeus has put a curse on Mr. D and every time he tries to have some wine, it turns into water," Stanley Tucci continues. 'He's also not happy about being in a position of responsibility. Mr. D is miserable and a terrible leader. He can't remember anybody's name, and he's probably more scared than the students are. Mr. D is a wreck and should not be in this position – and that's what made the role so much fun for me." To embody the hirsute and heavyset figure, Stanley Tucci sports a moustache, beard, wig, and a fake paunch.

Nathan Fillion, an iconic figure to sci-fi fans from his work in the series 'Firefly" and the movie based upon it, 'Serenity," joins the Olympians as Hermes, messenger of the Gods. To humans, Hermes appears as a UPS worker; to the young Olympians, he is a gorgeously-tailored businessman who takes the Half-Bloods on a tour of his colossal parcel sorting hub.

Hermes is the father of demigod Luke. 'Luke is causing all the trouble, and they need to find him," says Nathan Fillion. 'Luke is a troubled kid and it breaks Hermes' heart a little bit. But we see that they're not heartless gods. There is a modicum of feeling there."
Nathan Fillion had seen 'Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief" and recalls being pleased when he heard they were making a second. He admits, 'It's neat, having an inner nerd and being a fan of something and then getting to participate."

Taxi From Hell

Percy's quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece begins when Annabeth hails a cab – in the middle of a forest – and out of nowhere, a taxi appears. The cab is driven by The Gray Sisters, three hags sharing a single eye.

Missi Pyle, who along with Mary Birdsong and Yvette Nicole Brown, play the enigmatic, taxi driving siblings, notes: 'We don't necessarily need the eye to drive, but we do like to pass it back and forth. The Gray Sisters are blind to what humans see, but when they put the eye in, they can really see." During the harrowing taxi ride, the Gray Sisters provide Percy with a piece of information that proves invaluable.

Pyle, Birdsong and Brown went through a daily five-hour makeup call to transform into the Gray Sisters. Designed by prosthetic make up wizard William Terezakis, the Gray Sisters' makeup effects included head, arm and even foot casts. The makeup effects team created empty black sockets where eyes would have been.

Six Checker cabs (circa 1969-1982) were used to film the Gray Sisters scene. Painted and adapted to resemble 1982 Checker cabs, the cars were wrangled from as far away as Arizona. One car was split in half, one was spun on a hamster wheel, one was dropped, one motored and bounced along on a gimbal, and two were actually road-worthy.

As production began to wind down, the visual effects department began to ramp up. Visual effects supervisor Dan Kaufman, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on 'District 9," began working on the project some six months before principal photography began. During post-production, hundreds of visual effects artists and professionals came together to create the CG-generated elements. Much of the computer-generated animation was done by animation and visual effects studio, Rhythm and Hues ('Life of Pi").

There are visual effects elements in almost every shot of the film, from removing stunt harnesses and safety rigs from actors in the action sequences, to creating the magical Hippocampus (which has a horse's head and torso, and silvery fish body with scales and fins), the Colchis Bull, the Manticore, Tyson's Cyclops eye, and Chiron's and Grover's respective horse and goat lower bodies. The goal is to integrate VFX shots, says Dan Kaufman, 'rather than overpower them. We wanted the visual effects to enhance the movie and give it that mystical, mythic quality."

The mechanical Colchis Bull is a machine that moves agilely and quickly, like a real bull. Dan Kaufman says 'In addition to animating Colchis, we choreographed its movements on set. The bull is eight feet tall at the shoulder and thousands of pounds, it's massive, and you have to think about how it's going to move and hit and how the actors will interact with it. Percy is dragged by it, Annabeth stabs it and Clarisse jumps on it – there's a different methodology for each interaction."

Dan Kaufman says the visual effects 'make things that can't possibly be real, be real. Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters takes place in our world, right now, but there's another hidden world, that's also part of our world. The supernatural elements fit right in our world and look like the real thing. For example, the hippocampus looks like a mythical sea creature, but it also looks as real as a whale."

One Man, Two Monsters

At six foot-eleven, Robert Maillet is hard not to notice. The statuesque actor plays two roles in Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters but audiences won't actually see Robert Maillet's face as either the legendary Cyclops Polyphemus, or as Luke's monstrous henchman, Laistrygonian.

Alec Gillis, the film's special makeup effects designer and creator (with Tom Woodruff, Jr.) created the look for Polyphemus and for the Oracle. For the latter, says Alec Gillis, 'the goal was to make her look like she's part of her surroundings." We wanted her to look real and grounded in reality, and that was part of the decision to make her animatronic. While we had other characters played by actors in makeup, we wanted a different look for her, partly because she has empty eye sockets and skeletal features that you just couldn't do with a human being. So that led us to create an animatronic puppet."

The Oracle was operated by four puppeteers, two on remote control devices that radio-controlled her facial movements, and two using direct hand linkages (i.e. hand puppet) or cable controllers.

Creating Camp Half-Blood and Other Magical Sets

To create the fantastic, mythological world of Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters production designer Claude Paré, three art directors, three set designers and an army of artists, carpenters, painters and set decorators, worked tirelessly to build an array of monumental sets, including a full-blown 200-seat, outdoor amphitheater; a towering 43-foot tall mechanical training machine (inspired by medieval Leonardo da Vinci concepts); the ancient residential village of Camp Half-Blood; the lair of the Cyclops, Polyphemus, and the surrounding, abandoned amusement park on Polyphemus' island.

In October 2011, Claude Paré and his team began what would be six months of prep, and as the start of production grew closer, there were between 200 and 400 crew people building sets. Claude Paré and his teams created much of Camp Half-Blood at Robert Burnaby Park, in the suburb of Burnaby, East of Vancouver. 'The scope of the park and its open clearing gave us a giant opportunity to open up the Camp to something that has no limits," says Claude Paré. 'Camp Half-Blood has to be magical, and I really wanted to make it a place where you wish you had spent your summers." The Coliseum was erected over a tennis court and five cottages were built in the wooded area nearby. The training tower towered 43 feet over the park.

The Ironclad Civil War ship, Mr. D's office in the Big House, the Attic where Percy meets the Oracle, the Gray Sisters' taxi ride, the innards of the Charybdis sea monster and Polyphemus' Lair scenes were all filmed on stage at Mammoth Studios in Burnaby. The exterior of Mr. D's Big House was shot at Foxglove, a magnificent residence and farm in Langley, near Vancouver, while the interior of his office filmed at a mansion in the Shaughnessy neighborhood of Vancouver. The Washington, D.C. scenes were filmed at the neo-classical Vancouver Art Gallery and other downtown Vancouver locations; the Chesapeake Beach scene was filmed on Ambleside Pier in West Vancouver.

Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, from April 2012, until mid-June, and then production moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, where filming continued until the end of July.

Bringing an Abandoned Amusement Park Back to Life

After escaping from the thrashing sea monster, the Charybdis, Percy and his friends realise they are approaching Polyphemus' Island. When they disembark to explore the strange, desolate place, they discover an abandoned amusement park called 'Circeland." Built by the sorceress Circe, the park closed on opening day after it was discovered that Polyphemus, the island's resident Cyclops, was eating park visitors.

When the filmmakers began discussing possible locations for Polyphemus' Island and 'Circeland," one of the first suggestions was Six Flags Jazzland Amusement Park in East New Orleans, which had been closed permanently in 2005 due to the extensive damage it suffered in Hurricane Katrina. Shortly thereafter, Six Flags declared the park a total loss and closed it permanently. The city of New Orleans took over management of the property.

In the seven years since the park's closure, nature had reclaimed many areas, with thick brush and weeds creeping across partially collapsed roofs, shattered lights and windows, shuttered theme rides and broad concrete walkways. Layers of spray painting and graffiti covered what remained. The existing lagoons and lakes, built for the long-defunct water rides and sitting stagnant for years, made the park look every bit like the creepy, faded island filmmakers envisioned.

Jazzland was a perfect 'Circeland."

The filmmakers targeted several areas of the park, including the Mega Zeph roller coaster, the adjacent Pontchartrain Beach area, Cajun Country and the Ozark Splash Ride. They cleared the dense growth from these main areas and set about removing scores of the real-life sea 'monsters" – alligators and snakes – that populated the park.

The massive job of powering the park and lighting up Jazzland the first time since Katrina struck in August 2005 required record-setting monster wattage. It took more than three weeks, 11 electricians and 24 grips working every day just to prepare the rides, structures and amusement park area sets for shooting.

On each of those 14 nights, the production lit up the long-darkened Jazzland and the East New Orleans sky. The brilliant glow of the million-plus-wattage could be seen from miles around, startling late-night and pre-dawn motorists on the adjacent interstate highways and sparking rumors the park was preparing to re-open. After filming wrapped at the park, a Texas Development Group announced it had taken out a two-year lease on the property, beginning in September 2012, to see if the 400,000-square-foot area could be developed into a combination outlet mall and amusement park.

The -Sea Of Monsters' At Sea

After arriving in New Orleans, Louisiana, production moved on to the waters of Lake Pontchartrain, just north of the city, to continue filming the action.

When Grover is kidnapped by Luke and the treasonous Half-Bloods, the search leads Percy, Annabeth and Tyson to ride the Hippocampus across the ocean to Luke's luxurious yacht, The Princess Andromeda, where they believe Grover is being held. The trio sneaks onboard the ship, where they discover the Golden Casket - and Luke's plan to bring Kronos back to life – before being discovered themselves, and taken prisoners.

To film the Andromeda sequences, the production used a 164-foot-long, 28-foot-wide, tri-deck power yacht called Wheels docking their spectacular floating set at the far west point of Lake Pontchartrain's South Shore Harbor.

Dressed For The Quest

Academy Award-nominated costume designer Monique Prudhomme ('The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus") says that life at Camp Half-Blood is 'one of jeans and T shirts. It's a life in sync with nature." She notes that the costumes reflect the gods' immortality – as that they live in the contemporary world. The armor and protection is inspired by paintball, BMX and skateboarding.

Monqiue Prudhomme also dressed some mythical creatures and monsters. 'It was challenging, and we had to work with the people who create the mechanics of the monsters and make sure it all worked together," she explains. In all, Monique Prudhomme and her team had to provide some 2,000 costumes for characters ranging from demigod campers at Camp Half-Blood, the taxi-driving Gray Sisters, Cyclops, hordes of monsters, Confederate soldier zombies, and an array of gods and heroes.