Hollywood would probably define an epic as a war movie for kids, in three or more installments. But before The Lord of the Rings, before Star Wars and Star Trek―nearly three millenniums before―a blind bard named Homer sang of an Olympian spat and the decade-long battle it stoked between the great, ancient civilizations of Greece and Troy. Wolfgang Petersen, the German director who has won worldwide audiences for manly crises under the water (Das Boot), on its roiling surface (The Perfect Storm) and in the sky (Air Force One), wants to take The Iliad out of schoolroom memories. His notion is to vacuum off the cobwebs and make it a vivid adventure that will appeal equally to adults who have a yawning familiarity with the story and to children for whom Homer is only Bart's bald, dundering dad.
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