Fairytales, Myths & Legends That is begging for Hollywood to Make

While I love the fairytales of Snow White & The Seven Dwarves & Cinderella, and I enjoy the stories of Hercules, The Trojan War & Odysseus we’ve seen so many adaptations of all of them that I think it’s time for new or lesser-known classic stories to be made into a movie or series by Hollywood.

One Thousand And One Nights

One Thousand And One Nights tells the story of King Shahryar who finds his wife in the arms of her lover and has her executed. The King resolves to marry a virgin each night and have her executed in the morning so she could not betray him as his first wife had. Scheherezade, who is the daughter of the vizier volunteers to marry the king even though the vizier is obviously against this. The first night Scheherezade starts telling Shahryar a story and the king is impressed. The sun rises and she stops in the middle. Shahryar demands she tells him more but she refuses for the moment. The king keeps her alive so she could finish. She finishes the story and then begins another & keeps the ruse going for one thousand and one nights. Scheherezade tells the stories of Aladdin, Ali Baba, Sinbad etc. During this one thousand and one nights, Scheherezade gives Shahryar 3 sons. Scheherezade begs Shahryar for her life reminding him of the sons she gave him and he agrees.

There have been a few adaptations but not a whole lot. I remember a 2000 mini series that Hallmark Entertainment did and it had Israeli actress Mili Avital portray Scheherezade. I read one or two retellings set in that world. One was by author Cameron Dokey and another one was called The Shadow Spinner from the point of Scheherezade’s sister Dunyazad who is mentioned in the original story too. I forgot the name of the author but I remembered enjoying the story and I like how Dunyazad gets a chance at a happy ending and adventure too.

Snow White & Rose Red The Brothers Grimm

Not to confuse this with Snow White & The Seven Dwarves which is also written by The Brothers Grimm, Snow White & Rose Red is a different story. Two sisters, Snow White & Rose Red live with their mother in a cottage in the forest. On a cold winter night, a black bear shows up asking for shelter and the bear visits during the nights in the winter but during the summer he doesn’t come to their cottage. Snow White & Rose Red also encounter an ungrateful dwarf who they free from danger several times & don’t know is an evil dwarf until the end of the story where the bear kills the dwarf and turns into a handsome prince. The prince tells the sisters the dwarf cursed him and stole his precious stones and the only way to break the curse was with the dwarf’s death. Snow White ends up marrying him & Rose Red ends up marrying the prince’s brother. The sisters and their mother end up moving to the castle with the mother bringing her roses both red and white.

Disney was supposed to make a Snow White & Rose Red movie & this news came out in 2016. Only they were going to make Rose Red Snow White’s sister from the Snow White & Seven Dwarves story. While I would have liked to have seen this, thank goodness Disney ended up scrapping it. I think they would have messed the movie up and caused confusion. Hopefully another Hollywood Studio will do it.

The Goose Girl by The Brothers Grimm

The Goose Girl is another Brothers Grimm fairytale that deserves a film adaptation. A princess is traveling to another kingdom to meet and marry her betrothed. A very bitter conniving maid servant steals the princess’s identity (after the princess asked for some water of all things) forcing the princess to swear an oath to never tell anyone or the princess would be killed on the spot. They reach the kingdom, and the princess is made to be a Goose Girl to help the Goose Boy Conrad. The false princess/evil maid tells the prince to kill the real princess/Goose Girl’s horse Falada. She knew that Falada would tell the prince and the king what happened and who she really was. The real princess had paid someone to have the head of Falada nailed and hanging so she could talk to Falada. Princess and Falada speak to one another despite Falada being just a head and Conrad witnesses this and he also witnesses the princess brushing her beautiful blond locks and she calls for the wind to blow away his hat. Conrad relays this to the king and after the Princess relays her story to the stove, the king listened and explains to his son she is the true princess. Here is where things get exciting… The false princess doesn’t know she’s been busted. At a banquet where everyone is drinking, eating and making merry, King in his cleverness has her answer a riddle and simultaneously telling the story. What punishment does someone like that deserve? Her response?

She deserves no better fate than to be stripped entirely naked and put in a barrel which is studded inside with pointed nails, and two white horses should be harnessed to it, which will drag her along through one street after another, till she is dead.”

“It is you,” said the aged king, “and you have pronounced your own sentence, and thus shall it be done unto you.”

The evil maidservant/false princess is executed in this manner and the real princess and prince are married and eventually become king and queen and rule happily for the rest of their days.

I know there have been retellings of The Goose Girl by authors Shannon Hale & a recent one by T. Kingfisher. I read the Shannon Hale book way back when in the mid 2000s when I was in my teens. Gosh how I feel old. I would like Gullermo Del Toro to do a Goose Girl movie he would stick to the original darkness of the fairytale.

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh is an epic poem/myth I read in World Literature back in college. Its about strong man Gilgamesh who is on a quest to become an immortal God. He is technically 1/3^rd human and 2/3rds God because his mother is a Goddess. Gilgamesh is a bit cocky and one example of this is he sleeps with the brides before the grooms get to. I’m assuming since this is ancient Sumeria (today known as Iraq) neither women or the men had any say in the manner. I remember despite doing some heroic things and failing tests Gilgamesh does not become immortal. Gilgamesh also had a companion named Enkidu and I remember he became a human in some weird comical sexual thing. Definitely not for children. Ishtar the Goddess whose father sent the Bull of Heaven after Gilgamesh who rejected her was interesting hahaha! I think we all wish our dads would send a bull after them who broke our hearts right ladies. (FYI it’s a joke. My thing is good riddance to those guys lol!) 

I think if Hollywood were to make the movie about Gilgamesh, I would hope they would get middle eastern actors. My fear is they would cast The Rock since he’s got muscles. What’s interesting is Gilgamesh is even older than the Odyssey.

Eros & Psyche

Eros & Psyche is a romantic Greek myth telling the story of Eros (Cupid is his roman name) & Psyche. Eros is the son of Aphrodite The Goddess of Love, Beauty & Sex. Psyche is a human who many say her beauty surpasses Aphrodite. Knowing the god & goddesses of Greek and Roman Mythology, you know how petty they can get just like the rest of us humans. Eros doesn’t care about what his mother thinks, he’s head over heals in love with her. Eros takes Psyche to his kingdom & makes her his wife. She is so desperate to see what he looks like she accidently burns him with the oil. Aphrodite is unhappy about this and is even more unhappy Eros brought Psyche here to start with. Aphrodite forces Psyche to undergo tests to prove she is worthy of her son. Psyche does this and this helps Eros heal from her mistake and betrayal and they live happily ever after. Weirdly this makes the vain Aphrodite happy because Psyche will no longer be a mortal woman whose beauty will rival hers.

I know lately there’s been a ton of authors doing retelling of myths from the woman’s point of view and Eros & Psyche are no exception. I would love to see this Greek Myth become a movie and get Greek and/or Italian actors to play the parts.