Hercules is climbing Mount Olympus and returning to the silver screen! Variety says Millennium Films is developing a new movie for the sandal wearing, half-man, half-god mythological hero.

The son of Zeus has been done on screen many times before, and of course he had his own TV series in the nineties starring Kevin Sorbo as Herc. But the character is timeless and it’s about time he had a modern, theatrical redo. The 1997 Disney animated version just didn’t cut it.

I’d love to see a new Hercules movie, I just hope a smaller operation like Millennium is up to the task of delivering the kind of massive-budget, blockbuster magic a quality Hercules movie requires. Also cause for concern is the guy they’ve bought their script from. It’s written by Sean Hood, an experienced direct-to-DVD writer whose best script credit is Halloween: Resurrection. Maybe the guy has a good Hercules movie in him, but from the guy who wrote Cube 2: Hypercube and The Crow: Wicked Prayer doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence.

For now though, this is great news. 300 has really gotten the ball rolling again for the sword and sandal epic, and in that genre Hercules is the Cadillac character to go after. It should be great to see him back taking on the gods, no matter who ends up playing him.