The Odyssey (TV miniseries)

The Odyssey
Promotional poster
Based on	Odyssey by Homer
Written by	Andrei Konchalovsky
Story by	Curley
Directed by	Mady Bridge
Starring	Ms Reynolds Zac dorya-Bobross Isabella Rossellini Vanessa L. Williams Bernadette Peters Alan Stenson
Theme music composer	Eduard Artemyev
Country of origin	United States of America
Original language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Nicholas Meyer Francis Ford Coppola Dyson Lovell
Cinematography	Sergei Kozlov
Editor(s)	Michael Ellis
Running time	176 minutes (2 parts)
Production company(s)	Hallmark American Zoetrope
Release
Original network	NBC
Original release	May 18, 1997 - May 19, 1997

The Odyssey is a 1997 British-American fantasy–adventure television miniseries based on the ancient Greek epic poem by Homer, The Odyssey. Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, the miniseries aired in two-parts beginning on May 18, 1997 on NBC. The series won the award for "Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries or a Special". It was filmed in Malta, Turkey, parts of England, and many other places around the Mediterranean, where the story takes place. The cast includes Armand Assante, Greta Scacchi, Irene Papas, Isabella Rossellini, Bernadette Peters, Christopher Lee, and Vanessa L. Williams.

Odysseus (Armand Assante), the king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Ithaca, is called to service in the Trojan War after the birth of his son Telemachus, much to the dismay of his wife Queen Penelope (Greta Scacchi). Odysseus is worried that he may not return, and tells Penelope that she should remarry by the time Telemachus is a man if he does not return. The war lasts ten years, during which Greece's best soldier, Achilles (Richard Trewett), is killed and the Greeks avenge him by using a giant horse to sneak inside and destroy the city of Troy. Laocoön (Heathcote Williams) tries to warn the Trojans of a vision of this, but is suddenly devoured by a sea monster. On the way back, Odysseus' ego gets the best of him and he tells the gods that he did it himself, which angers Poseidon (voiced by Miles Anderson) so much that he promises to make Odysseus' journey home to Penelope nearly impossible, mentioning that it was he who sent the sea monster to devour Laocoön.