Make it a Movie: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

In our Make it a Movie section we play the role of movie producers and map out the movie production. Currently The Song of Achilles sits as Dylan and Keith’s #6 & #10 books, respectively. The Song of Achilles is a retelling of the classic Greek mythology story (from the Iliad) but through the eyes of Patroclus. It explores Patroclus and Achilles relationship and has something for everyone: love, action, fantasy. A really well written book that would pop on the big screen. This one will be a tear jerker of a movie for sure.

Production Notes: The last posting from author Madeline Miller was Caryn Mandabach Productions Ltd., producer of the acclaimed BBC series Peaky Blinders, has optioned the rights to Song of Achilles for a possible television mini-series, other than that not a lot of info on its possible release. We’ll help the production companies with some potential castings.

Based on: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Genre: Romance/Action

Logline: Troy meets Call me by Your Name

Main Characters/Casting:

Patroclus – In many ways Patroclus is the opposite of Achilles, he’s is kind, non-violent, and described as just average is physique, looks and intelligence. Despite what he describes as his shortcomings, his and Achilles relationship blossom throughout the book and they fall in love. Sticking with the ‘Call me by Your Name’ comparison we made in the logline, an easy pick here is Timothée Chalamet. Let’s be honest, Timothée Chalamet is way too good looking and far from average in any way, but this is Hollywood baby. 

Achilles – Everyone knows Achilles’ story, the greatest warrior of his generation, as well as the most beautiful. The absolute perfect casting was Brad Pitt in Troy, but since he is on the older side now, and it’s unlikely he’d run that character back almost 20 year’s later we’ll cast someone else. Casting Armie Hammer would actually make sense since he has the size and look and again would reunite that chemistry of Chalamet and himself, but that would be too easy. Plus, we try to avoid cannibals when possible (although our book selection would say otherwise). We went with another godly man in Chris Hemsworth, he’d have no problem pulling off Achilles, I mean look at this guy:

Thetis – is Achilles mom and a god of the sea. She is and very protective of her son and his destiny. Her and Patroclus do not get along as Thetis believes Patroclus is a distraction and detriment to what Achilles can and should be achieving. We need someone that can kill with a single look and could pull off the look of a god. That describes Angelina Jolie to a T. 

There are a lot of other characters we could cast here but for now we’ll stick with these. Let us know what we got wrong and who we’re missing!

Check out our episodes on The Song of Achilles book here.