The Odyssey (TV miniseries)

The Odyssey
Promotional poster
Distributed by	Hallmark American Zoetrope
Directed by	Andrei Konchalovsky
Produced by	Nicholas Meyer Francis Ford Coppola Dyson Lovell
Written by	Homer Andrei Konchalovsky
Starring	Armand Assante Greta Scacchi Isabella Rossellini Vanessa L. Williams
Music by	Eduard Artemyev
Cinematography	Sergei Kozlov
Editing by	Michael Ellis
Country	United States
Language	English
Original channel	NBC
Release date	May 18, 1997
Running time	176 min.

The Odyssey is a 1997 Emmy award-winning and Golden Globe-nominated^[1] American television miniseries. Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, the miniseries aired in two-parts beginning on May 18, 1997 on NBC. The series later won the award for "Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries or a Special". The series is based on the ancient Greek epic poem, The Odyssey, which is usually attributed to Homer. It was filmed in Malta and Turkey, as well as many other places around the Mediterranean Sea, where the story takes place, plus parts of England. The international all-star cast includes Armand Assante, Greta Scacchi, Irene Pappas, Isabella Rosselini, Bernadette Peters, Christopher Lee, and Vanessa L. Williams.

The DVD is currently available as a double feature CLASSIC ADVENTURES collection with RHI Entertainment's GULLIVER'S TRAVELS.

The creature effects for this miniseries were provided by Jim Henson's Creature Shop where they used a talking animatronic pig roasting on a spit, a CGI for Scylla, a rod puppet sea slug-like sea monster that devours Laocoön, and the full-bodied version of Polyphemus.

Plot

The miniseries follows the story of The Odyssey, about King Odysseus, on his decade-long return from the Trojan War to his homeland of Ithaca in Greece.

As well as the Odyssey, the series takes some scenes from Homer's other epic poem, the Iliad, and others from Virgil's epic poem, the Aeneid. The story follows Odysseus as he leads his men into the Trojan War, is cursed with wandering the Earth by Poseidon, the lord of the seas, battles monsters including Scylla and the cyclops Polyphemus and the forces of nature as he goes to his home and to his wife Penelope.

Cast

• Armand Assante as Odysseus
• Greta Scacchi as Penelope
• Isabella Rossellini as Athena
• Bernadette Peters as Circe
• Eric Roberts as Eurymachus
• Irene Papas as Anticlea
• Jeroen Krabbé as Alcinous
• Geraldine Chaplin as Eurycleia
• Christopher Lee as Tiresias
• Vanessa L. Williams as Calypso
• Nicholas Clay as Menelaus
• Adoni Anastassopoulos as Perimides
• Paloma Baeza as Melantho
• Ron Cook as Eurybates
• Reid Asato as Polyphemus
  • David Barclay as Polyphemus (face operator)
• Mark Hill as Orsilicus
• Pat Kelman as Elatus
• Vincenzo Nicoli as Antinous
• Sally Plumb as Arete (Queen Alcinous)
• Roger Ashton-Griffiths as Polites
• Katie Carr as Nausicaa
• Marius Combo as Agelaus
• Alan Cox as Elpenor
• William Houston as Anticlus
• Oded Levy as Leocrites
• Peter Page as Philotus
• Michael J. Pollard as Aeolus
• Alan Stenson as Telemachus
• Stuart Thompson as Antiphus
• Tony Vogel as Eumaeus
• Heathcote Williams as Laocoön
• Michael Tezcan as Eurylochus
• Richard Trewett as Achilles
• Yorgo Voyagis as Agamemnon
• Peter Woodthorpe as Mentor
• Derek Lea as Hector
• Freddy Douglas as Hermes
• Miles Anderson as Poseidon
• Alan Smithie as Priam
• Vernon Dobtcheff as Aegyptus
• Josh Maguire as Young Telemachus
• Kresimir Novakovic as Phoenecian Sailor (uncredited)
• Max Oddball as Greek Juggler (uncredited)
• Shawna Wenger as Servant (uncredited)

See also

• List of historical drama films
• Greek mythology in popular culture

References

1. ^ IMDb: Emmy Awards: 1997

External links

• The Odyssey at the Internet Movie Database
• The Odyssey at Rotten Tomatoes
• Hallmark Entertainment: The Odyssey
• The Odyssey at Muppet Wiki