In his most recent blog post, Camp Half-Blood Chronicles author Rick Riordan has offered fans some new updates about the pre-production status of Disney+’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, which was officially greenlit a month ago. Riordan confirmed that 20th Television is currently planning to start filming on June 1 at Mammoth Studios in Vancouver.
Even though the official cast hasn’t been finalized yet, the executive producer shared that they have just finished the chemistry reading that involved different groups of three talented young actors, who are vying for the roles of Percy, Annabeth, and Grover.
“We brought together different combinations of young actors we had identified as interesting candidates for the roles of Percy, Annabeth and Grover, and had them read through scenes together to see how they interacted,” Riordan wrote in his post. “It was informative and exciting, and though we have come to no decisions yet, the process is moving along well. Seeing these actors taking on the roles in person made me appreciate once again just how talented and capable middle school kids can be when given a chance to shine. They were all amazing.”
Riordan also promised that fans would be “blown away,” by “what the crews are constructing,” at Mammoth Studios, teasing the “fresh and exciting,” visual world that production designer Dan Hennah has been working on.
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The Percy Jackson and the Olympians pilot will be directed by James Bobin from a screenplay co-written by Riordan and Jon Steinberg (The Old Man), based on Riordan’s first installment of his hit Camp Half-Blood Chronicles book series.
“The live-action series tells the fantastical story of the titular 12-year-old modern demigod, Percy Jackson, who’s just coming to terms with his newfound supernatural powers when the sky god Zeus accuses him of stealing his master lightning bolt. Now Percy must trek across America to find it and restore order to Olympus,” reads the synopsis.
Executive producers are Riordan, Bobin, Steinberg, Dan Shotz, Rebecca Riordan, Bert Salke, Monica Owusu-Breen, Jim Rowe, and Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell, and D.J. Goldberg. 20th Television is set as the studio.
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The Percy Jackson novel franchise began in 2005 with The Lightning Thief, which proved to be a smash hit and spawned four sequels, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan’s Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian, with five supplement books and graphic novel versions of each being released shortly after.
The first novel was adapted for the big screen in 2010 with Chris Columbus (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) helming and Logan Lerman (Hunters) starring in the titular role.
