It started life in a school dorm room (nicely, technically it was 2,700 years in the past, however we’ll get to that later), gained a multi-million military on TikTok, and earned a real-world report deal.
Now Hollywood is asking.
Epic, the musical telling of Homer’s The Odyssey, is getting the film remedy due to Jerry Bruckheimer.
Bruckheimer, the mega-producer behind the Top Gun and The Pirates of the Caribbean motion pictures, has partnered with Jorge Rivera-Herrans, the creator, composer, songwriter, producer, and performer behind the viral sensation, and Atlantic Music Group president Kevin Weaver to provide an animated musical adaptation of the epic, no pun supposed, saga. Chad Oman of Jerry Bruckheimer Films may even produce.
The challenge is within the nascent phases, and is to be taken out to studios and streamers for shows by CAA, who represents Bruckheimer, presumably as early as subsequent week. The challenge could be Bruckheimer’s first foray into animation however not into the world of music. Many of his movies have been musically-inclined and half of popular culture’s soundtrack, going again to Nineteen Eighties basic Flashdance.
The timing couldn’t be higher as Homer has out of the blue turn out to be sizzling in Hollywood. Christopher Nolan is prepping for a retelling of The Odyssey together with his all-star live-action characteristic that may open July 17 and is already producing buzz that it may very well be one of the largest motion pictures of the yr. Combined with the feverish following Epic has engendered, this story might be on the zenith of recognition not seen for the reason that historic Greek poet first started narrating it in his toga within the eighth century B.C.
Rivera-Herrans started Epic as his formidable senior thesis at University at Notre Dame. Things took off when, through the pandemic, he started posting his inventive course of on TikTok in 2021, then started releasing the sagas as musicals beginning in 2022. The self-released EPs started hitting the no. 1 spot on iTunes after which no. 1 on the soundtrack charts, the place at one level Epic occupied 9 out of the highest 10 itemizing.
The serialized music format, re-envisioning the basic story the battle hero’s gods and monsters-filled decades-long journey dwelling to his spouse and son by way of a contemporary, immersive lens, struck a chord with millennials and Gen Zers, who fell for the influences of musicals, anime, and video video games. They even obtained to take part within the worldwide casting course of. Fans additionally created animatics to go along with the songs, showcasing a spread of kinds and genres.
More than 4 billion international streams and over seven billion short-form views later, what started as viral social content material developed into a worldwide phenomenon, redefining how music, storytelling, and viewers engagement can intersect at scale.
The music business got here calling, with each label courting him in 2023, though Rivera-Herrans rebuffed wealthy provides. That is, till he signed with Weaver’s Atlantic, who spent two years courting the twenty-something. Weaver, whose three-decade profession on the firm noticed him spearhead blockbuster soundtrack initiatives together with Barbie The Album, The Greatest Showman, and Suicide Squad: The Album, helped steer Epic from the digital sea and into the shores of the actual world, with bodily product and merchandizing, racking up hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from an keen fanbase.
Bruckheimer’s boarding was eased by that proven fact that Weaver labored with the producer on final yr’s F1 The Album, primarily based on F1, the Brad Pitt racing film that earned an Oscar nomination for finest image and received one for finest sound. The film grossed over $634 million worldwide.
Rivera-Herrans is repped by Jake Phillips of Greenberg Traurig. Weaver is repped by Alan Sacks of Frankfurt Kurnit.
