Percy Jackson :: Harry Potter redux?

Tell me if you have heard this one before: A teenager is living a somewhat unhappy existence only to find out that he is destined for great things. Upon learning of this knowledge he is whisked into a fantastical world filled with powers and dangers. The film is directed by Chris Columbus and adapted from a young adult series of novels.

While you would be forgiven for assuming the above mentioned plot belonged to Harry Potter. But in fact, it is the Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series written by Rick Riordan, with the big screen version hitting theaters this weekend. Chris Columbus, who helmed the first Harry Potter film almost a decade ago, is directing the series' initial film. But while critics and audiences may make the inevitable comparisons, Columbus and his cast of actors have done everything they can to make sure you forget all about the boy wizard once the theater lights go down.

The film's leading quartet, titular star Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario, Jake Abel and Brandon T. Jackson stopped in Philadelphia while touring the country to promote the film. They talked to EDGE about those comparisons and who inspires them in their careers.�

As Big as Harry Potter?

Regardless of how much the actual film might differ from that other teen fantasy series, there's going to be comparisons made between the two. The television commercials even make the connection for audiences by touting Chris Columbus as the director of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

While the comparisons might be inevitable, just don't tell the young cast that.

"I guess once you see Chris Columbus's name attached to a big fantasy film about a kid thrown into a big situation its like, yea you are going to think Harry Potter. But it's different, it's very different," said Lerman. "Do we want the movie to be as good as Harry Potter? Sure, yea. Do we want it to be as big as Harry Potter and have as many fans as Harry Potter has? Yea. But it's a different story line."

None of the actors appear to have any interest in trying to make a carbon copy knock off of the popular wizardry series. Part of their faith was due to their director and knowing that he felt the same way about retreading down the same path.

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Watch the trailer for Percy Jackson and the Olympians:

Actors signed for sequels?

"Chris Columbus isn't a director who is going to repeat himself or do the same thing he did in the previous two films," adds Abel, who plays Luke in the film. "He throws kids into extraordinary situations, but the films themselves are classic and separate."

Fox, the film studio behind the series, is also differentiating themselves from both Warner Bros, which produces Harry Potter, and Summit, which handles the Twilight, movies. What's the big difference? All of the actors are locked up to do the entire series. So that means there are no contract negotiations or questions about who'll be back if anyone's fame skyrockets.

"If they make more, we are signed for three," explains Jackson, who plays Percy's best friend Grover. Jokingly, he adds, "If any of us act up, they are going to replace us with Don Cheadle."

Something that fans of the books, who are familiar with Columbus's work in the early Potter films, might be surprised to find out is how much has been changed in the film. Many people have mentioned how closely Columbus' Potter films came to their literary origins. The actor's, however, are not worried because the tweaks that were done are based off of necessity for the different medium the story is being translated.

"They are different mediums, you know. I think fans will just accept that. They can see it as two different things," said the film's leading man. "There are a million things that are different. You could say you're not blonde. Or you could say we're not 12 years old."

However, there was a change that did get under Abel's skin. In the book, his character Luke has a scar and in the film it's absent. The actor clashed with the filmmakers to include the detail, but ultimately the decision was never reversed.

"I fought for that tooth and nail because to me it was very important to the fans. I know being a fan of the books, and see them translated and they're important things like that missing. I understand storylines need to change, but it does affect him emotionally because it is a physical scar given to him almost as a punishment and it does affect his personality and gives him reason for his actions," explained the Ohio native. "You know, you chose the battles you want to fight and you fight as hard as you can. It is what it is. It's not going to take away from the film. It's not going to change the film. It's not going to make Luke any different; I played him as if he had a scar. But it is just those things that you know sometimes don't work out."�

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Watch this interview with Logan Lerman from Percy Jackson and the Olympians:

Working with CGI

The actors are all getting their first taste of what it is like to star in a big budget with lots of CGI special effects. For the action sequences the actors were given a crash course in a variety of different skills including sword fighting, kickboxing and archery.

Once they mastered the fighting skills, the filmmakers used CGI effects to finish creating the magical world that Percy Jackson and his friends live in. Unlike some actors who find it difficult to act with nothing else there, that wasn't a problem for the cast of The Lightning Thief.

"It [CGI] gives you the opportunity to just kind of lose yourself, if you can, and create whatever you want there. If you have a grasp of your imagination it's easier for you to create the environment for you and then you work with the visual effects artist and Chris Columbus and all them. It's freeing," explains the California born Lerman.

For Daddario, making the film brought her back to her childhood.

"It's kind of like being a kid again a little bit, you think there is a monster or a ghost under your bed when you are a kid and you have an image of what that is going to look like and you actually believe it's there.� You are terrified. I remember being 5 or 6 years old and really believing that. Now you get to do it again sort of," recalls the actress, who plays Annabeth in the film.

By working with a digital scene partner or background, it can sometimes be hard to imagine what the final product will look like. The filmmakers did their best to help the actor's so they weren't working blindly.

"They gave us a preview, some CGI like with how the Hydra was going to rise. How they were going fly. They showed us all that," Jackson explained.

Lerman looks at it the difference diplomatically. "All of it looks different than you would imagine, it's not your vision. You can do whatever you want, you're just puppets to the director, right, giving them as many options as you want. But you are never going to know what the final product is going to look like."�

Behind the Camera

It's fairly common to hear younger actors talk about dabbling in another career besides acting. In a world where even D-list celebrities have fastened some kind of mediocre multi-hyphenate to their name, it's refreshing to hear the Percy Jackson cast talk about eventually making the move behind the camera because it's a passion of theirs and not just some strategic marketing ploy.

Talking to the actors they are actually more likely to name filmmakers as their role models than any of the big names you actually see in front of the camera. For Lerman, he looks to directors David Fincher and Martin Scorsese. Daddario looks to Steve Martin for his writing abilities and Jackson is feeling James Cameron because "what a good feeling he brought to the Earth right now with Avatar."

Abel, on the other hand, admires the work of screenwriters, specifically those that have a knack for smart, fast paced scripts. "Aaron Sorkin is music. You don't change a thing because he writes notes and he writes rhythms and he writes melodies and for me nothing is more easy and more fun to explore," described the actor. He adds, however, that he has no immediate plans to move behind the camera. "I think the day that I become an actual filmmaker will be further down the road because for right now acting is definitely what I want."

For now, however, the actors are working on their on camera skills. The Lightning Thief has plenty of well known actors who have been around to offer free acting tips to the cast.

"It was nice, it's sort of - I mean it's a great learning process obviously. It was kind of rejuvenating to have someone new come in every couple of week and exciting," said Daddario.

Add Lerman, "They are all just as talented as these guys, obviously they are a little bit older and have a little bit more credibility and obviously one of them is James Bond. It's like it's cool that they have accomplished what we want to accomplish, but it's the same thing as working with these guys. I guess because they have been around for so long and understand it so well, I guess they understand how to get to a certain point in the scene that they need to get to quicker and then you can just kind of play with them easier. It's like playing with a tennis pro."

Only time will tell if in 20 years the Percy Jackson quartet is around to be a tennis pro for another group of young, up and coming actors.

Watch this featurette about Percy Jackson and the Olympians: